Category: COMM 296

The biggest American football league, the Super Bowl, is not as big in Canada or anywhere else in the world as it is in the United States, but the advertisements just draw as much attention for the companies spend millions of dollars for 30 second air times.

One of the advertisements that intrigued me was the Samsung Galaxy Note commercial because not only Samsung has its home base in my home country Korea, but also because its content was very funny and interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CgfknZidYq0

It mocks its biggest rival Apple. In the article Why Didn’t Apple Advertise During the Super Bowl? the author says that Apple should make an advertisement to counter attack. I have contradicting opinions about it. As a potential consumer, I find it very entertaining to watch rival companies compete, so I would like to see Apple’s reaction. Their advertisements get cleverer and their products get more innovative, just like the Listerine and Scope example we discussed in class today. However, it might not be necessary because Apple has very many loyal customers that would stick to Apple products no matter what. It would not be that easy to turn people’s mind like in the Samsung Galaxy Note commercial. Besides, Apple does not have any new products to promote at this point. Apple would still need to consider first time users. According to NDP, Android attracts more first time smartphone buyers. I am very anxious to see how Apple is going to react and the clever marketing tools it is going to use!

I was thinking of what to write for the marketing blog assignment and I wanted to write about something unique. I haven’t been watching TV lately, so I have no idea what clever ads are out there trying to market products these days. So I thought I should do something I saw on streets lately. And it seems like there is a common trend throughout the world from what I’ve observed.

I was walking on campus with my friend and saw a guy wearing only underwear dancing alone in front of the bookstore. When we were closer to the guy, another guy gave us a piece of paper advertising used book sales.

This is a photo taken by my sister when she was an exchange student in Korea last term. It was taken at a busy street full of young people in Korea. Citi Bank was advertising its zero transaction fee products in public with men dressed in tight blue outfits.

Both occasions involved men showing their figures explicitly. I guess it is hard to say this is a trend as I have observed only two advertisements, but it is a great way to draw people’s attention for sure. However, I am sceptical of its effects. I think it will work well if its purpose is just to let the words out and use it as a starting promotion method. But I am not sure if people are going to actually seriously think about buying the products advertised. They will have to do further research before making their decisions, but will they have enough information on how? For example, the Citi-Bank advertisement above claims that there is zero transaction fee, but in fact there are certain conditions that customers need to fulfil in order to enjoy free transactions. Marketers will have to make sure they provide sufficient information and further research opportunities to the customers.