INFINITI

I read a blog which was written by Chang Yong Lee and paragraphs below is what he has written.

Not long ago, the FIFA committe decided to host 2022 World cup in Qatar. Today, I am going to discuss general issues surrounding this incident in marketing context.

http://thegulfblog.com/2010/12/02/qatar-to-host-2022-world-cup/

http://boston.com/community/blogs/less_is_more/2010/12/how_did_we_lose_to_qatar.html

Among other bidding countries including the U.S., South Korea, Japan and Australia, Qatar successfully presented their willingness to host the 2022 World Cup and made their dream come true. However, in a marketer’s perspective, this is not quite a true success. After reading articles linked above, I have narrowed down to one idea that explains how I made my deicision.

“MONEY”

Qatar claimed that they are ready to spend 3 billion U.S. dollars to build 12 ultra-modern stadiums that are LED equipped and fully air-conditioned. Building a stadium is a costly job, and it will cost astronomically to build such modernized stadiums. Building stadiums is not the only problem. Huge maintenance expenses will haunt them down even after the World Cup is over. Transportation system is another one that would bother the Qatar government. Maintaining an excellent transportation system that can afford hundred thousands of new visitors in a geographically limited country is a hard job, and again, costly.

Of course, it is perfectly fine (even legal!) to bring up some magic by pouring in massive “capital” (the rest of the world calls it oil dollar) to buy off the world’s biggest and most famous global event. The Qatar World Cup Committee even paid a famous soccer player Zinedine Zidane over 16 million dollars just to show up in a Qatar World Cup endorsement. They may have got what they wanted, but I would rather say that they failed to succeed in marketing context.

From what I understand, many of the countries wanted to host 2022 world cup and they have tried so hard to host world cup at their countries. Surprisingly, Qatar, the country that has never shown in previous world cups got to host 2022 world cup on their home soil. This was a shock to many of the countries and this could be seen as a true marketing success. The countries that host world cups are the ones that have been participating in world cups as the countries with soccer enthusiasts. Not many people have ever heard of country called Qatar. However, their marketing strategy to earn this amazing chance to host World cup can be seen very successful as there is a minimal chance for a country with no appearance in world cup to host world cup is almost impossible.

Remember how you should turn off your cell phone when going to the movies? Well think again.

Car industry spends a huge amount of money every year in marketing to increase the sales of the vehicles. Whenever the car manufacturing company come up with a new model for upcoming year, they advertise their new models and expect those models would sell. Without marketing, the company would not be able to promote their brand, new model line ups, and etc,. Marketing helps the businesses to build their brand value as well as promoting their products. The cars are the products that cost a lot of money especially when you are buying a brand new one. As the price of cars being very expensive, people tend to think, research and take more time on deciding which vehicle to pick out of all the alternatives. It is known fact that the car manufacturer with better marketing strategy sells more vehicles than its competitors. This is because consumers rely heavily on marketing such as ads on TV, newspapers, radio, and magazines, when purchasing the products that they are not fully aware of or when the products are very expensive.

Without marketing, the car industry would have hard time building their brands, selling their cars, promoting their new line ups. However, using effective marketing strategy is also very important when trying to succeed in the market.

These pictures above are the pictures used on one of the Dutch fashion brands advertisement. As you can see from the pictures, these pictures are so provocative that they give you the negative feelings instead of arousal. These advertisement is exposed to anyone that even young teenagers can be exposed to these advertisements. The media is one thing that influences people greatly in these days. And by creating advertisements like this, not only adults, but young teenagers will be influenced greatly in a way that reflects this advertisement.

Creating the advertisements to promote their products is good. But when they are creating one, they should always question themselves whether if it is adequate for all potential viewers or not.

Samsung’s latest phone that has been announced in the global mobilephone market is Galaxy S. This phone is made with the latest technology that it is very technologically advanced and it makes users very convenient when using the phone. Here are some of the specifications of the phone:

Network

HSUPA 900/1900/2100
EDGE/GPRS 850/ 900/1800/1900

Dimension

64.2 X 122.4 X 9.9 mm (119g)

Display

4.0” WVGA(480×800) 16M SUPER AMOLED
mDNIe(Mobile Digital Natural Image engine)

Samsung Android 2.1 (Eclair)

Samsung Apps / Android Market

Various applications downloadable

Social Hub

Integrates SNS, email, and calendar accounts

Android Samsung UI

Multiple Homescreens
Hybrid Widgets

Processor

1GHz CPU Speed

Battery (Standard) Li-pol, 1,500mAh

Talk time : 2G/ 769 minutes, 3G/ 391 minutes
Standby : 2G/ 750 hours, 3G/ 625 hours

Camera

5.0 Megapixel AF camera
Self Shot, Action Shot, Add me, Cartoon Shot, Smile Shot

Video

HD Video Player & Recorder (1280 x 720) @ 30fps
codec: DivX, XviD, MPEG4, H.263, H.264, WMV, VC-1
format: 3gp(mp4), AVI(divx), MKV, FLV, H.263Sorenson

Music

Music Player with SoundAlive
3.5mm Ear Jack
MP3/AAC/AAC+/eAAC+/OGG/WMA/AMR-NB/AMR-WB/WAV/
MID/AC3/IMY/FLAC/XMF

Memory

16GB/8GB+ MicroSD(Up to 32GB)

Android Browser

Flash Lite3.1, RSS reader

Multi-touch zoom

Light sensor

Accelerometer sensor, Proximity Sensor, Digital Compass

Additional Features

Layar Reality Browser powered by Tele Atlas
Swype, Write & Go
ThinkFree
Aldiko e-book

Samsung’s Galaxy S phone’s hot competitor is Apple’s new iPhone 4. Apple has been very successful with their iPhones and they are looking forward to dominate the global mobilephone market with their new iPhone 4. Here are some specifications of the phone:

Both of the phones from Samsung and Apple have pretty similar specifications. They have the slightly different exterior designs and details; however, they both have a very appealing look that they are the top selling phones in a current market.

Samsung has been in a global mobile phone market long before Apple has entered. However, Apple has been growing so fast that now it is standing next to its big competitor, Samsung.

The price of these phones are very similar to one another. Samsung’s Galaxy S phone is priced at $ 663.59 and Apple’s iPhone 4 is priced at $659.99.

As both of the phones have similar specifications, similar designs, and price, one of the companies who comes up with sustainable comparative advantage will be successful in taking the biggest share in the market.

Would Porsche be able to overcome their competitors who have been in a center of this market for a really long time?

Ferrari, Lamborghini, they both are the high-end Super-Car manufacturing companies that have been respected by many car lovers. They have been designing their cars in a way that can attract the customers’ attention and make them fall in love with them. They also have the truly amazing performance figures. However, since their target segment consist of people who have high income, they put a price tag so that only people who earns high income annually can own these cars. Their new base model cars are Lp560-4 and 458 Itaila. They have the price tag starting from $260,000 to $300,000. Even though the price for these vehicles are very high, Ferrari and Lamborghini managed to attract a lot of customers every year. In fact, their number of sales have been increasing year after year.

Porsche is also known as a performance car manufacturer and it also has a long history in a performance car industry. Porsche has recently announced their all new 2011 Porsche GT2 RS. This car is truly amazing in terms of performance. This car would be a good match against its rivals LP560-4 or 458 Italia. Porsche mainly focused on building this car for track use; therefore, it provides the excellent grips all around the corners. The exterior design of this vehicle is also truly amazing. It simply attracts all the car lovers’ attention. However, there is one thing that might be the weakness of this vehicle compared to its rivals, the price. The base MSPR for this vehicle starts from $ 297,000. If you add few more features to it, it will go well over $ 300,000. This price tag is somewhat higher than its rivals LP560-4 and 458 Italia.

Porsche will need some good marketing strategy and positioning strategy to stay healthy in a market against these long lived rivals.

Equus

It is a new flagship vehicle of Hyundai motor company which will make a debut in US market in late fall of 2010.  This luxurious vehicle will be sold in price range of 50k~ 60k US dollars. All the US models will be fully equipped including VIP massage system on all seats, intelligent cruise control, intelligent seatbelt system, and many more luxurious features. Hyundai has been rapidly expanding their market in US ever since 1986. The United States of America, that is where almost all the motor vehicle producing companies come together and compete with one another to expand their markets. Hyundai has been very successful in expanding their market and looking forward to be on top in near future.

However, there’s one problem with their marketing strategy. They are lowering the price of the cars to attract customers in US. Equus, which will make a debut in US market in late fall of 2010, is sold for over 100k US dollars in Korea. They have lowered the price of this car by at least 40k US dollars to compete with other luxury brands like Lexus, and BMW. Hyundai motor company is making more than half of their revenue from market in Korea. From the Korean customers point of view, this huge price down on Equus for US market can be very disturbing because, they are paying extra 40k US dollars to drive the same car. This price down on Equus for US market might lead to potential decline in loyalty from customers in Korea.

Is Hyundai motor company going to take a risk of losing loyalty from customers in market where they make more than half of  their revenue, just to expand their market in US?

Tiger Woods, the professional golfer who re-wrote the history of golf, was the top athlete name brand before his adultery scandal. Nike, the sponsor that Tiger Woods signed the endorsement deal with, used Tiger Woods in almost all of their advertisements. Having Tiger Woods in advertisements was so effective in a sense of marketing that Nike never used any other golfers to promote their brand. However, after his adultery scandal, Tiger Woods lost many of the endorsement deals except the one with Nike and few others. Nike decided to keep the endorsement deal with Tiger; however, there is not a single commercial with Tiger Woods in it. This makes viewers question whether Nike thinks that Tiger Woods isn’t the top athlete name brand or they are just waiting for him to get back to where he was before.