Evan's Blog

An interesting commercial that I saw that was aired during the superbowl was the Miller High Life’s one second commercial. I wonder if it was actually effective because they are gambling on the fact that people are paying enough attention to the television to actually catch the commercial. It almost has the effect of subliminal advertising because it simply flashes a man that screams out “High Life”. For the people that did catch the ad it may have been effective because it is different and unlike any other superbowl ad that was played. A reason that I think Miller decided to go through with this commercial was because they know that superbowl ads are watched by the viewers because it is something they expect to be good and part of the superbowl experience.

After going to a Starbucks Coffee shop, I received 2 cups to hold one coffee in because they ran out of sleeves to protect people from the hot coffee. This got me thinking because I vaguely remember Starbucks being environmentally friendly. So I went online and went to their corporate responsibility page. On the page they have written in in their environmental section “We’re finding ways to minimize our environmental footprint, tackle climate change, and inspire others to do the same”. I find that marketing their green efforts on their corporate website is a great idea, but the only way to ensure that their efforts to be sustainable is to make sure their employees share the same values.

For this type of “green” marketing to be successful, they have to ensure that every aspect of that marketing campaign should be covered flawlessly. All it takes is one week link in this chain for it to back fire, and to ruin their genuine efforts. Personally, I feel that green marketing is very volatile because this is still a relatively new concept that a lot of people are still, for lack of a better word, “iffy” about.

Recently I have noticed the advertisements that are on the side link of google being more and more tailored to my lifestyle. The level at which google does its market research is close to creepy. I noticed that all the advertisements can be traced back to recent key words that I use in emails and searches. The fact that a company like google has the capability to advertise based on what I frequent the most is quite amazing.

This got me wondering, how does google do its research on customers I found an interesting article that basically sums up how they do it. So in simple terms they have a huge set of algorithms that monitor what I search every time I’m on google and it searches the entire web for any advertisements that are remotely related to what I have searched. I never knew that market research involved so much math.

After scrolling through Kristine’s blog, I saw that she was just as confused as I was when it came to the “Are you still a virgin?” posters that were posted all on a good amount of Vancouver bus stops and billboards. I feel that the mystery behind this type of this genre of advertising is quite effective in capturing the general public. For example, the movie Cloverfield had a very similar advertising genre. They played a series of clips that didn’t reveal anything about the movie, but at the same time sparked enough interest in the audience to go to the theatres to watch it.

After doing some googling I realized it is for a movie as well. It was for a movie called “The Virginity Hit”. I definitely want to watch the movie because I am rather curious about what it’s all about. The fact that I, a random person, am intrigued by this type of advertising shows the effectiveness of creating a mysterious and vague advertisement.

For an NFL athlete to make it to the cover of EA Sports Madden football video game cover should be an honour, instead it is a burden that the player’s joke about because of the effect it has on their performance. Since 1999- 2010 every player that has made the cover has also experienced major injuries or sub par performances.

How does this tie into marketing, This may create a problem for EA Sports in trying to find a current superstar to fill the role of being the Madden poster boy. I think that having the superstar player of the year on the front cover portrays how Madden is the superstar of videogames. Anyone besides the best and the consumers may be confused and might associate Madden as second best.

This may be a curse that not only curses the players but the Madden videogame as well!

How important is branding?

Branding is the sole reason why humans sometimes act irrationally. My example I chose is the Giffen good. This term is an economic term for a good that actually causes consumers to increase their demand by raising the price. An example of a Giffen good is a rolex watch. If branding wasn’t a determining factor for a Rolex, rational consumer behavior would look a little more like this: an increase in price will cause less demand for the good.

Once we add the power of a brand into this situation, the Rolex becomes a Giffen good. This is because the buyer has created an almost incomprehensible value to the good. If the price is lower the good will be less attractive to the buyer. The buyer receives less happy from the purchase because he/she perceives it as a lower quality product. As weird as this sounds, it is quite true.

The power of marketing is quite strong. Although most people discredit the power of advertisements it does play a larger, role that most people aren’t aware of. The psychological aspects that play into consumer behavior is stronger than we think. So to answer the initial question, yes, branding is important.

As you all know, Apple is probably one of the best at marketing their products to consumers. I personally, think that they’re products, such as the iPhone, Macbook, etc. are great, but they aren’t the MOST technologically sound. Yet, they seem to be eating up more and more market share. If it isn’t solely because of the product, then what is it? Well, I think marketing plays a majority role in how well their gadgets sell.

For example, iPods and iPhones. The change in technology from one generation to the next isn’t really that significant. A video camera mounted on a phone has been around for about 10 years now. But since apple decided to put a camera on the next generation of iPod nano’s the public seems to be in utter awe from this “advancement”. People then start buying the NEW nano because of the “neat new gadget” that is has on it. Same thing goes for the touch screen, video chat working only in an area with Wifi. As we learned in marketing, firms want to create a sense of value in their product to the customers and Apple has done exactly that.

Another example of why Apple has done a superb job marketing its product is the famous iPad. It is almost exactly the same as the Kindle, but since it is associated with the Apple Brand, consumers are willing to pay more because they “value” that brand’s product more than its competitors.

Apple has done a great job targeting the younger generations who will ultimately run the corporate world in the next few decades in hopes to change the status quo from PC to Mac. Their promotions such as the back to school sale where students receive a free iTouch and printer along with their macbook purchase is one of the best ideas I have ever seen. Since they hook all the young students onto using the Mac interphase at such a young age, these students, as they grow older will prefer mac over PC because of the consumer loyalty that mac has invoked upon them.

At the moment, I think that if Apple’s marketing campaigns keep up the same quality of work that they are doing they will most likely over run RIM, and the PC operating system in no time. This is why marketing matters so much in the business world.