What better opportunity for brand recognition and association then the Olympic Games? Samsung Canada, the global marketing partner of the International Olympic Committee and the Canadian Olympic Committee Sponsor, revealed its clever marketing plan for the Sochi Olympic Games this winter. The smartphone promoting plan entails the slogan “Bring it Home” and a contest to send Canadians to Sochi as “mobilers” who will keep the nation updated on current events with statuses, photos and blogs. The company will also launch a tour called “Notes from Home” that will exclusively allow Galaxy smartphone and tablet users to send messages to athletes. As for the sponsorship of athletes? Steven Stamkos and Hayley Wickenheiser, arguably the current two most popular hockey athletes, top the list. Many companies have sponsored the games though, what point of difference does Samsung have to offer? The fortuity for consumers to win the contest will draw attention to Samsung’s Galaxy product line months before the Games even begin. Extra media attention will revolve around the fact that one lucky “Average Joe”, not your usual broadcaster, gets to captivate the nation with Olympic updates, all from a Samsung Galaxy product.

Source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/marketing/samsung-announces-marketing-plans-for-sochi-winter-games/article14975823/?cmpid=rss1&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheGlobeAndMail-Front+%28The+Globe+and+Mail+-+Latest+News%29#dashboard/follows/

Source: http://popsop.com/wp-content/uploads/samsung_olympics_bloggers_01.jpg

One can only imagine the criticism Rogers will receive as it launches a new direct marketing service called “Rogers Alerts”.  National retailers have signed on with Rogers to pay to know when people are near their store, and send text messages with promotions encouraging them to shop there. This mobile marketing is the first of its kind in North America, so at least Rogers has given customers the choice of opting-in to receive the messages. Surprisingly enough, several thousand customers have already agreed to receive the texts, but do the rest of Rogers customer base like the idea? Has marketing become more intrusive than ever? Consumers are constantly being bombarded with advertisements, and only accept what is true to prior knowledge. Do companies really expect these texts, which aren’t customized and are sent based off location, not to be filtered out of the consumers mind? Emails and mailboxes are constantly sent junk because they are easily accessed, where as cell phones are one of the only communication tools that have been left private. There is a good chance that consumers are not ready to give that up. How long before opting-in is replaced by having to opt-out for Rogers customers?

Source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/marketing/rogers-to-offer-promotional-ads-by-text/article14646004/#dashboard/follows/

Source: http://cdn.iphoneincanada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/rogers-hutz.png

Steeped Tea is a Canadian company that sells a growing line of tea products through consultants who hold home tea parties across Canada and recently the US. The companies direct sales business model was successfully pitched on the popular TV series Dragons Den, it has since grown over three hundred percent. The company now has over 3,000 consultants in Canada promoting and selling tea products, while another 200 consultants have started working in the US after a risky decision to expand into the American market.

The driving force behind Steeped Tea’s success is the direct business sales model. By having consultants sell directly through host tea parties, the company has an absolute cost advantage over competitors who normally sell to grocery retail chains. Not only do the tea parties cut costs, it allows the hostess’ to form relationships with customers who provide feedback about the teas. Since expansion decisions are made off this customer feedback, Steeped Tea has grown profits from expanding to new products by better satisfying its customers.

Source: http://www.thespec.com/news-story/4142683-dragons-fired-up-over-company-s-success/

Source:http://www.mommylicious.ca/sites/default/files/content/images/steeped%20logo.jpg

The steep fall of Blackberry out of the smart-phone industry has not lacked media coverage since the 2008 stock market crash and the overwhelming popularity of Apple’s iPhone brand. Media has kept consumers updated that Blackberry’s stock value is plummeting and job layoffs are inevitable. Blackberry’s failure came from a combination of missed opportunities, lack of innovation and the disastrous decision to launch the Z10, the company’s first non-keyboard product that was massively unsold and recently caused a $965-million quarter loss.

Personally, I don’t think it was a bad choice for Blackberry to release the Z10 phone, although the timing of the Z10’s release could not have been worse. Blackberry should have started brainstorming touch screen designs as soon as they started feeling market share pressure from iPhone and Samsung. Although its an expensive and risky investment for companies to expand their product lines, the competitive advantage Blackberry could have attained by expanding their customer base with phone varieties would have outweighed the heavy investment. Blackberry spent too much valuable time improving the Z10 that by the time it was released in 2013 both Samsung and Apple had already become rooted leaders in their positions, so another touchphone didn’t appeal to consumers.

Source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/the-inside-story-of-why-blackberry-is-failing/article14563602/?page=all#dashboard/follows/

Source: http://cdn-static.cnet.co.uk/i/c/blg/cat/mobiles/blackberry-broken.jpg