After taking this marketing course, I realize that my choice is right! I major in Economics. The regular Econ class doesn’t require much teamwork and is less interactive. This class is much much more interesting, and it broadens my perspective and horizon on marketing and even on my life.

Before I take this marketing course, I just think marketing is about selling. Now I find marketing is actually about everything. It is pervasive from designing a new product to communicating with customers; from marketing yourself in job interviews to how to build relationships with others. Marketing can be found anywhere in our daily life. In the future, I can use the marketing knowledge learned in class when I go shopping, watch TV and especially find job.

One of the most important chances that I get from this course is to know my great team members and work with them to finish our project. Everyone in our team was eager to contribute. We had meetings nearly before or after every class. Everyone was in attendance for all group meetings, and everyone was very committed and productive. We always had a good plan and everyone followed the timeline, so we always finished our work 3-5 days earlier. Good time management kept us away from rush work before the due date. For assignment 3, we went to the YVR to film the video, and we also film at school for two days. Everyone showed enthusiasm. Good cooperation makes the process going well. These group work assignments not only provide a good chance to let us apply what we learn in class, but also improve our planning, organizing, and collaboration skills by working in a team.  Overall our WestJet team did an awesome job!

Recently, I watched a popular Chinese TV series “Let’s Get Married”. One thing I noticed and found really interested to me is that there are so much “product placement” in it. Product placement is defined as a non-traditional advertising technique used by companies to subtly promote their products through appearances in film, television, or other media (by the BuinessDictionary.com).

Some watchful audiences counted there are over 49 “product placement” in the TV series. Each of the products are present in a different way, from the milk tea that are on the shelf to the cars that the actors drive, even the websites which the performers use to find jobs. Many people criticized the product placement online. Some people made jokes and said this TV series should be called “Let’s Advertise” instead; some others said it is the longest advertisement they have ever seen. However, in my opinion I think it is a quite effective and useful way for marketing.

In my point of view, I prefer the product placement through the TV series rather than the normal ads that in the middle of the TV series. If the product placement replaces the normal ads, audiences would save a lot of time to watch a TV program. It also follows the social trend of a time-poor society. Furthermore, when characters say something good about some products, the message will get into fans’ memory, and in the future the fans would easily recall the memory and are highly likely to buy the products. The product placement allows the products show in a close way to the audience which in a “real” life than the formal advertisement. It’s more vivid and feels closer to our lives than the several-minutes commercials. So without impacting the story of the TV series, the product placement is acceptable for me.

In Ryan’s Blog, he talked about Mercedes-Benz’s commercial for their new “Magic Body Control” suspension system. The commercial uses chicken’s ability to keep heads relatively stationary as they move their bodies to demonstrate the stability of the new system. After I know the ability of the chicken from his blog, I realize that’s pretty a good idea to use this creative way to show the feature of the new system.

Actually before I read Ryan’s blog, I watched this commercial. At that time, I just found this commercial was funny. I guessed it wanted to show the stability, but it makes more sense when I know the ability of chicken.

In the case of this commercial, for people who already has known the ability of chicken would directly find out what Benz wants to demonstrate and feel it’s smart; for people who don’t know the ability of chicken would feel funny and maybe would question why they use chicken. The commercial is successful, because no matter which kind of group people, this commercial will catch their eyes and provide information, even though the perception are different.Each commercial or other kinds of advertisement are watched by different groups of people. Depends on their education or background, audiences would have different understanding of what they watch. Marketers should make sure that the ads would convey correct image and understandable information to their target customers.

Barry Schwartz as an innovator of the Google Glass is deciding who he is going to invite to get the opportunity to purchase the Google Glass. In Barry’s Blog he talks about the new marketing strategy of the Google Glass —crowd-based marketing strategy. In my opinion it’s a wise and efficient way for diffusion of innovation.

Now, the product is in early adopter stage. In reference to Barry’s blog, people can inquire an invitation from Google, and after they get the invitation, they need to spend $1500 plus tax for an explorer version of Google Glass. Google has created an absolutely successful buzz with its Google Glass presentation and Glass videos. It is so effective. Even the Google Glass invitation is selling on eBay for $500.

So while Google inviting people to help them to test their glass, they are also trying a new way to fund and market a new high tech product. Google is handling this process extremely well. People are voluntarily signing up for the invitation, inviting their friends, sharing on their Facebook and posting it on Twitter. As they invite 8,000 people to join their explorer program, it will end up with millions earning to their revenue.

Google’s successful attempt in crowd funding shows how crowd funding can be done in large company. The potential opportunities of crowd-base marketing and funding is huge. The Google Glass explorer program could be seen as a giant experiment in crowd funding and crowd marketing.

“What truly distinctive about the kind of Asian hospitality that Shangri-La offers is our colleagues’ genuine care and respect for our guests and each other. For us, this is more important than talking about palatial buildings or beautiful locations.” said Greg Dogan, president and CEO of Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts.

In 2010, Shangri-La developed the new campaign“It’s In Our Nature” which emphasized the essence of the Shangri-La culture “embracing people from the heart and treating them like family”. When I first watched the TV commercial, I was pulled into the short story and so touched by it. Wolves come out to warm an exhausted traveller, embracing a stranger as their own. Instead of showing how beautiful and gorgeous the hotel is, this campaign inspired the employees and customers by a sweet moment, and it also conveyed the value of genuine kindness, which enriches the society.

Nowadays, there are kinds of commercials and marketers are striving to find different ways to catch consumers’ eye. An impressive campaign would attract more attention. Shangri-La did successfully for this campaign. The target market for this campaign is people who have a young attitude and love nature, travel, and adventure. Kindness will make them feel happy. Therefore, this campaign could touch their hearts.

Following is the TV commercial. Enjoy！

Following are some awesome magazine advertisements for this campaign.

Source:

http://altnews.asia/content/2010/06/01/shangri-la-hotels-and-resorts-launches-new-global-brand-campaign

http://ournature.shangri-la.com/en/#/home/

As I worked though my team assignment, I found the step of target market identification is very significant and influential in making the marketing decision. By doing that, it gives me further understanding for the marketing tactic and marketing knowledge that could go beyond the marketing assignment.

The target market identification always starts from doing the research. However, better target market identification could be done by having a clear recognition of the issues or goals that the company wants to solve or accomplishment, instead of starting research directly. It would be very helpful in defining the target market and would always contribute as sort of guide-line into the research.

When I was doing the target market identification, I realized it is not only need to define the group of people who are customers, but also find the group of people who are the solution to a company’s problem. It is quite different from what I thought before. As the target markets are a congregation that could solve a company’s problem but not only limited to increase sales or market share. The target audience could be anyone, includes customer, investor, lobbyist, etc. It depends on the situation that the company is facing; even the same company would have different target audiences.

In order to do good target market identification, it has to do good segmentation and identify segments from different variables, includes the geographic, psychographic and demographic aspects. Then narrow it down by outline and express as many as characterizations that find from research. As more proper descriptions provided, easier it would be to identify the target market and develop the company positioning and 4Ps.

In this August, Victoria’s Secret, the world famous brand of lingerie and sleepwear, was having a grand opening in downtown Vancouver. On the opening day, shoppers started to line-up from 5am. Why is Victoria’s Secret so charming?

The simple reason is that: Victoria’s Secret does pretty well on marketing their products and building a strong brand image. Their fantastic marketing strategies are pervasive from store interior design to their advertisement and supermodels, who are known as “Angels”.

I went to the new store last week. The two-story, 35000-square-foot store really impressed me. The double spiral staircase with the large screen is stunning. The atmosphere is quite different from that in other stores: the colors are vivacious, the floor is sparkling, and the music is upbeat. The interior design, which is pretty and fashion, attracts most of the young girls, who are the main target of the company. This place makes girls feel like a princess.

During the opening period, there was a promotion that if customers buy over 75 dollars, they would get a pink Victoria’s Secret umbrella for free. Lots of girls came out from the store with an umbrella. This strategy is quite smart considering the fall weather in Vancouver.  Even if someone didn’t read news, he/she would know Victoria’s Secret comes to Vancouver by seeing the whole street pink umbrellas.

 Victoria’s Secret is also famous for their annual super fashion show. Actually, I heard about this fashion show before I knew this brand.  The fashion shows have many eye-catching focal points, such as the new designs, the supermodels, the popular singers, and the annual “fantasy bra”.  Many girls, who are the main target market, like to watch and talk about this show. The psychological needs make them want to buy and emulate the supermodels.

Although the merchandises of Victoria’s Secret are expensive, consumers are still willing to come to the store and believe the value gained offsets the high price. Creating and providing wonderful value to consumers is the key of the Victoria’s Secret’s success.

Source:

http://globalnews.ca/news/804389/vancouver-retail-scene-booming-with-victorias-secret-store-opening-aritzia-sale/

As I was watching videos on YouTube, one of the Coca-Cola commercial pops up as my video’s pre-ads. I am not an ads person. I always skip the ads after its 5 seconds playing, but not for this time. Coca-Cola has great commercials. I enjoy watch every Coca-Cola ads.

Then I questioned myself, what makes Coca-Cola’s ads so attractive? Is that because I feel Coca-Cola taste better or the commercial’s self is good? I end up with watching 10 more Coca-Cola’s ads and I think I find out the answers. Unlike other ads, Coca-Cola’s commercial is not about selling their bottles; it is about sharing the feeling that everyone enjoys, happiness. Their commercial is trying to build a bond between their brand and the feeling of happiness. What a genius idea! It is just like the impression that Apple gives us is simpleness and that for Lululemon is yoga. With that in mind, I believe Coca-Cola is working on their impression toward happiness.

This also reminds me a marketing article that I have read, Push and Pull marketing strategies. Push is sellers offer or push the deals to the customers. For example, sellers ship their products to retail stores and customers see it and decide to buy. Pull is sellers interact with customers and wait for customers to take action. Coca-Cola is definitely using the pull strategy.  As a well-established brand, Coca-Cola creates their demand directly from their customers with their advertising campaigns all over the world.

As I scrolled down to the comments box, I read a comment from Anael “Bring happiness to Israel! We really need it! “. I realize maybe Coca-Cola is not only building their brand images, they are also delivering it to the world—happiness.

Check out the videos below, there might be one that will touch you. Enjoy.

The last couple of days are big days for Apple. Apple has launched its new iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c, and announced it has sold over 9 million in the first three days. It nearly doubles the 5 million sales of the iPhone 5, which was launched last year. The successful sales of iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c are contributed by an improvement in the way of marketing, rather than an improvement in technology. Why this works?

As the criticism says the smartphone market has already been highly saturated. From the last year, more and more people decide to buy an Android phone instead of an iPhone. Comparing to the longstanding black and white iPhones, customers can get more choices by selecting from Androids. Also, the new features added in the iPhone 5 didn’t make any big differences from iPhone 4s. People even made jokes about the length increase of the iPhone 5, and predicted what iPhone20 would look like.

However, iPhone 5s/5c is more successful than Apple’s previous model. It’s not because iPhone 5s/5c upgrades its processor from generation 6(A6) to generation 7(A7/M7), or has a larger storage. It’s just because it looks better. In other words, it’s more physically appealing to the customers. For people like me, who have limited technology knowledge can barely tell the difference between an A7 chip and an A6, or A5 chip, but I can certainly tell the difference between a color of blue and black. Therefore, to a “visual” customer, the colorful design of the new iPhones definitely adds much value to the product. When Apple has nothing to do with its hardware upgrades, “for the colorful” is a bright way to be attractive.

From the textbook we learned that marketing has an enormous impact to our society. The influence would be in a good way if the marketing strategy is social-orientated, for instance, by holding ideas about social responsibility or sustainable growth, providing positive sense to public to contribute the society. However, some marketing are criticized as being unethical based on the bad effects causing by inappropriate contents or expressions.

The recent event, “The Science of Sexuality”, held by the Vancouver Science World has received some public criticism. Two of their three print ads have been removed from showing at bus stops around Vancouver for being considered as too racy. Although the three presented ads deliver simple and brilliant ideas which perfectly match the Science World “Now You Know” advertising campaign, the marketer should think twice about the impact before publish the ads to the public. As Science World is a place where parents want to bring their kids to go, parents would be more sensitive to what their kids will think if they see the ads. Even if kids are not the main target for the event, we have responsibilities to protect them from erotic and violent information.

Below are the three ads, and the left and the middle are the two banned from bus stops.

Here is another example. Many young ladies find they are offended by the recent back-to-school ads from Mic Mac Mall. The ads featured illustrations of young girls with lines “My favourite class? Shop!” and “Social studies? Does posting my new boots on Facebook count?”  To a certain degree the ads trumpet vanity, comparison, and the pursuit of the material rather than the spiritual. Some people said the ads reinforced gender stereotypes of young ladies only interested in shopping and not education.

Following are the back-to-school ads from Mic Mac Mall:

To sum up, besides finding ways to increase the profit and sales, marketers should consider more about how to enrich the society with their marketing campaign.

References:

http://globalnews.ca/news/780263/sexy-science-world-ads-banned-from-bus-stops/

http://globalnews.ca/news/797585/mic-mac-mall-apologizes-for-controversial-back-to-school-ads/