Throughout this semester, I was given the opportunity to work on a progressive marketing project with a number of my classmates. The assignments took up quite a significant amount of time each week for my team, as we preferred to fully discuss our decisions together in order to make sure that we were all always on the same page. Through this experience, I was able to learn a lot about myself and about my team members. I further developed my team working and interpersonal skills through the constant interactions with my teammates, and I learned how to better incorporate each person’s ideas into our overall decisions. Also, I gained a deeper understanding of the marketing topics that we were learning in class, as we had to apply terms and strategies by analyzing specific company case. For example, I learned how to create a clear and concise positioning statement for our company, Zara, in relation to the unique segment we believed would be the most profitable.
However, my team and I made some mistakes throughout this whole process. After Assignment 1, we did not split the work up into sections for each of us to do individually, as many of the parts were interrelated. We ended up wasting a lot of time meeting, as half of us could not work on the same thing at the same time anyway, especially during the video project. We realized a little too late that we should have split up certain parts that were not dependent and worked on it separately. However, I am glad to learn from these experiences, and I will make sure to correct these errors in the future. Overall, I was able to gain and improve on a number of skills from the assignments, and I truly believe that this has been an incredibly valuable experience.

The general population is well aware of the magic of the Photoshop, as well as the role that it plays in fashion and beauty marketing. Even when the model in a photograph looks incredibly stunning already, companies never fail to use the photo editing program to further enhance the lighting, the person’s figure or face, and even the clothes and makeup. Sometimes it even ends up looking inhuman and alien-like. However, The Globe and Mail reports that firms like Unilever’s Dove, has cleverly criticized this beauty industry norm to help advertise its own products. Using ads that show the drastic effects of Photoshop, as well as ads that show that women don’t need these enhancements and are beautiful in their real skin, has drawn much of the public’s attention to its marketing strategy. For example, the video below is one of Dove’s most famous ones:

DOVE “Evolution” from David Hayman on Vimeo.
Modern technology is amazing, isn’t it? I personally love these commercials, not only because it is an ingenious tactic, but also because it sends the right message to women out there, who are constantly being pressured to be skinnier and more “flawless” than possible. These Dove commercials illustrate that beauty standards are too exaggerated because of makeup and technology, and that the problem lies not within the individual, but within society’s perceptions. Many famous celebrities have even commented on the effects of Photoshop in their own personal experiences. A notable example is Jennifer Lawrence, who recently commented at the Oscars on her digitally retouched photos from her Dior campaign, declaring, “That doesn’t look like me at all…[o]f course it’s Photoshop. People don’t look like that.”

Photo credits to Huffington Post.

Perhaps it is time that fashion and beauty companies reconsider its marketing strategies and tone down the amount of photo editing used in the future. While the effects may be amazing, most of what the public typically receives are feelings of incompetence and low self-esteem.

The long fought battle between Apple and Samsung has just begun. As everyone knows, these two companies are two of the leading providers of mobile phones these days, and they are constantly striving to keep their market share. Recently, CNET has reported that Samsung has outspent its rival in regards to marketing, consuming a whopping $401 million. In comparison, Apple has a reported budget of $333 million. Because Samsung has not been on the scene as long as Apple has, they have had to go further in leveraging its marketing strategies in order to win over the consumers. With other phones such as the HTC and LG Optimus gaining popularity, firms cannot relax for even one moment. Samsung has been known to heavily advertise its “Next Big Thing” campaigns everywhere, and it even utilizes and insults Apple at the same time. Take a look at this commercial, for example:

What better way to show that you’re better than your rival than this? It’s direct, it’s clear, and consumers will understand the message: that Apple is yesterday’s news.  If people actually choose to believe it or not is up to them; however, the meaning is apparent. While Apple does still control a majority of the industry’s profits, Samsung is slowly climbing its way up, and is also expected to continue heavily with its promotions. With the new Galaxy S IV coming to carriers in May, the corporation will be able to see the effect of its innovation, research, and marketing on the consumers soon enough. Personally, I’m getting myself on the pre-order list ASAP.

Photo credits to pocket-lint.com.

YouTube is home to more than a million video creators around the world, bringing in over 800 million unique user visits each month. As Eleanore mentions in her blog post, “$600,000 – $2,000,000 from YouTube Videos. Wow.”, these video makers can earn up to 2 million dollars a year; that is, if they have enough views and subscribers. So, how do they get more views? More followers? The answer is of course, marketing.
As Eleanore mentioned, marketing acts as a mediator of the self-interests of a business and the needs of the buyer, and it allows others to know where your personalities and traits lie. As a YouTube creator, it is not easy in the beginning to gain subscribers and to get their videos out to the right people. These people need to utilize the features of YouTube and other channels in order to better advertise their videos, whether it is about makeup, humour, or life advice. For instance, the thumbnail that appears for each video is part of what brings in the viewers. If the picture shows something interesting, shocking, or amazing, then more people will click the video. Furthermore, just having subscribers doesn’t mean that they’ll watch all your videos. This means that the creators must also think about the title of the video for peaking the interests of the viewers. The more outrageous, the better.  Look at this video, for example:

The title makes you curious, doesn’t it? What surprise? What’s going to happen? You’ll only know if you watch the video. As it turns out, the video turned out to be an advertisement for a TV channel, but it was exciting while it lasted. However, as we can see, marketing isn’t just important for large corporations, but also for individuals. If one is successful, they might be able to earn as much as Jenna Marbles does.