Month: December 2010

A fabulous tool to use when promoting an initiative or getting the word out on a company, social media is now even used in school. Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr are all relevant mediums utilised in this digital age.

Defined as being media utilised for social interaction employing highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques, social media has innumerable business applications, the most notable amongst them being linked to marketing.

In some of the recent in-class business plan recommendations that outline what a company should do to further promote its goals, groups stated that they should forego traditional marketing techniques in favour of a cheaper, and a supposedly more effective social media strategy.

While this route may work up until a certain point, I am not of the opinion that a company can really grow without falling back on some from of traditional marketing, such as print, television, radio advertisements, or even just plain old word of mouth – this allows them to outreach to a much wider audience. It also explains why established firms spend billions on marketing; there is still relevance in doing so, although social media is an excellent supplement to have alongside it!

Ambush marketing is a concept that I’ve known about for a very long time, but have never given much thought to.

Defined as a marketing strategy wherein the advertisers associate themselves with, and therefore capitalize on, a particular event without paying any sponsorship fee, ambush marketing is a term hissed at in industry circles. As undeniably effective as it is damaging, a firm that utilises ambush marketing attracts customers at the expense of competitors, at the same time undermining the integrity of, in most cases, the sporting event. It may even also compromise the event’s future ability to attract future sponsors.

Arguably the greatest ambush marketer of our time, Nike is definitely guilty of these practices; some great examples are on this site.

http://www.brandchannel.com/features_effect.asp?pf_id=98

In some cases, ambush marketing is supremely effective: often edgy and well-produced, Nike’s ambush marketing commercials for Euro 2008 and World Cup 2010, both of whom Adidas was a sponsor of, are some of the most incredible footballing ads ever made.

Euro 2008: Take It To the Next Level

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZA-57h64kE

World Cup 2010: Write the Future

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSggaxXUS8k

Check out the videos and judge for yourselves, but also think about the implications of ambush marketing: evil or clever?

A world leader amongst many issues, Canada has been slow to latch onto the bandwagon that is Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Though it certainly takes an extra bit of effort and can decrease revenue through increased costs, CSR can definitely help improve the company’s image and increase their bottom lines.

Here is an American example of CSR done right (profitably):

One of the trendiest and most popular clothing companies out there, American Apparel prides itself in making all of its clothes right in the USA – downtown LA to be specific. Though they do charge higher prices for its clothing than a direct competitor might, customers understand that it is attributed to the fact that these clothes cost much more to make than say, had the same articles of clothing been made in Indonesia or Bangladesh.

Coupled with some trendy designs, a reputation for making plain look sexy again, and ‘responsible production techniques,’ American Apparel has garnered quite a following amongst the younger generations and is seen as a very ‘hip’ brand; contemporary clothing that is also totally against unsavoury issues like the complete corporatization of fashion, as well as the inhumane working conditions of textiles labourers.

Founded in 1989, American Apparel did two things right in regards to CSR. They identified the right ethics to support, and they did it early.

This blog post pertains to the three different types of enterprises and focuses on one particularly interesting one: Meals on Wheels.

There are three different kinds of enterprises:

1. Profit maximizing
2. Charity
3. Social enterprise

Interestingly, the last one happens to be a mixture of the first two, aiming to generate revenue to the best of its abilities. The variation here is that the former takes all earned ‘profits’ and reinvests it into the cause-based business. The latter will solely use that profit for payoff, catering to its shareholders and employees, and will primarily think ahead towards future profit-maximizing opportunities. Social enterprises also cannot be publicly traded and have a social conscience at the core of its operations.

Meals on Wheels is a great example of a social enterprise that prepares nutritious, catered meals for those who otherwise do not have easy access to them. Their clients include seniors, new immigrants, disadvantaged children, people with low-income, and the working homeless. While these meals sometimes come at a low cost, they are aiming to better the community in their own valuable way.

Meals on Wheels is a phenomenal social enterprise that is worth taking a note of, going about their business with a clear social conscience in mind.