Product vs. Promotion

The marketing mix includes product, pricing, promotion and place. Every company has its own strategy and sometimes, one outweighs the other. As the title suggests, I will talk about how the product can outweigh promotion and vise versa.

Promotion can outweigh product easily. We see many advertisements of products we know are no good. The blog by Tommy No reminded me of how McDonalds Restaurant has been very successful despite of criticism over their unhealthy food. They focus their promotion on other things like the famous “I’m loving it”, helping the community, and family targetted ads. Because McDonalds has been in the business for so long, brand image and customer loyalty is already built. They got customer attention even from the bad publicity and still remain profitable.


Now, we’ll see how product can outweigh promotion. I think products that are out in the public for so long successfully is an example of this. A very good brand image will stick to consumers’ mind for a long time and even though the company doesn’t have that many promotions, consumers will still come to buy their products. Louis Vuitton or Gucci are two of the companies that are successful in this kind of strategy.

However, both marketing mix are very important for a company to be successful.  Promotion can influence the company’s success by being on the consumers minds for a long period of time. Product satisfies the demand of the consumers. It’s inevitable that one can outweigh the other from the introduction of the product to the end life cycle of it but both has to be present in order to be profitable in the long run.

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Stop greenwashing

Replying from Laura’s blog, I want to talk about how greenwashing affects branding in the marketing world today.

From our lecture in branding, “Your brand promise is the heart, soul and spirit of the benefits you deliver. It’s  never about your product  or service; it’s about how you want to make people  feel”. No company wants to be perceived as environmentally harmful or indifferent about our environment. They want to be perceived as sustainable, green, eco-friendly and socially responsible. By advertising that the products they sell are green, they want to make consumers feel like by buying their products, they help the world be a better place or they live a healthier lifestyle.

Companies aim for customer equity (loyalty) so they can capture more profit by adding value to their customers. So, why do they greenwash if they know that this will hurt their reputation as a trusting brand? Companies should realize that greenwash practices can only give them a head-start advantage but the risk of it damaging their reputation and destroying customers’ loyalty is far too great. It would be difficult to gain their customers’ trust back again. Branding their product  in the future may be doubted by consumers and will hurt their company financially in the long -run.

Furthermore, greenwashing can tarnish the eco-enthusiasm in our society. Companies who do legitimate eco-friendly products and services can be doubted by consumers and ultimately ruin their investment. Green washers are contaminating the marketplace with their bogus eco-friendly claims. There is a website called The Greenwashing Index which evaluates environmental marketing claims. Consumers now can be well aware of greenwashing and they can be more protected against the false claims. Companies who legitimately brand their products as eco-friendly now has to prove their marketing claims to avoid being called as greenwashers.

 

 

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Movie Marketing Success

commenting on: http://www.brandchannel.com/home/post/2012/02/06/Brandcameo-Chronicle-020612.aspx

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I’ve been wondering how different it is to market a movie instead of a product? All I can see is that the trailer is its main ad. I’m not going to talk about movie marketing in general, instead I’ll focus on the movie Chronicle and how it successfully position itself in the market.

Superhero or supernatural movies are very famous right now. A lot has been created but only some has been successful. So, I can say that having this plot is a great start to capture the audiences’ attentions. Mostly movies with superheroes comes with a  big shot director or producer  or famous actor/actress which will count as a marketing strategy. Chronicles doesn’t have any of those, instead they focused on other innovative marketing strategy:

-It shows video footages (like real time in Paranormal Activity movies). It sets them apart from other superhero movies (differentiation)

-Instead of having its own website, they focused on a facebook page which is a brilliant move considering where the target market is. The connection in facebook, youtube and twitter will help spread the word for the movie with minimal marketing cost. All they have to do is put up a cool modern looking page which will get the attention of younger generation (mostly active in social media).

-A week before the movie’s premiere, Fox made a marketing effort which went viral in youtube. The video has human-shaped RC planes flying in New York City

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The successful marketing strategy contributes to the financial success of the movie. Currently, it is the top box office earning $22.0M especially considering the budget for the movie compared  to other movies in this site.

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Why/How we buy?

comment on a marketing blog:

http://www.drewsmarketingminute.com/2011/12/howwhy-we-buy-social-commerce-infographic.html

 

I took psych courses last year; I can say that it really helped me open my mind to something that I couldn’t explain before. Social psychology deals with people and as marketers, it’s important to understand how people think.

This info-graphic shows an interesting way of understanding why/how we buy. There are six psychological reasoning and it’s fascinating how marketing people study them and use them to help their strategies and to maximize the captured value from customers.

Nowadays, we can interact with people all over the world with our mobile devices. Social media has been a tool for commerce and has been continually growing. Facebook (f-commerce) and twitter (t-commerce) being the two of the largest network. Evidences of the psychological reasoning are now emerging in social media. Marketing can have a whole new branch this generation can study and master.

From experience, I can say that a lot of people are sharing products through tagging friends in Facebook. The large network helps the product to have more exposure and easy access to potential buyers. New products are introduced to consumers more conveniently. This can serve as free advertising for the product. If a company has a satisfied customer, the chances are they will share their experience with other people. With the huge network set up by social media, this can be done easier and faster.

With the help of social psychology, social media marketing can be done more efficiently. We can put ourselves in a consumer’s point-of-view and see how we can influence their actions. Overall, knowing what customers think (not technology itself) is the most important so that businesses can adjust their strategy to further develop their customer relationship.

Mobile phones: Future of social commerce? watch this video.

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About myself

Where in the World

Hi, my name is Janelle Loraine Si but  you can call me Janelle. I was born in the Philippines and moved here when I was 16. I played basketball throughout high school and still play occasionally. I watch a lot of TV, mostly TV series such as Big Bang Theory and Grey’s Anatomy and also sports.

Well, I guess I could say I’m taking this course because I’m required to and it’s in my timetable. However, I bet it’s an interesting course opening my mind not to only my own view of what marketing is, but also a deeper understanding of what includes in marketing.

My experience with marketing as a consumer goes way back from what I could remember. I see a lot of advertisement on the TV when I was a child to ads on internet sites. I don’t like commercials very much because it keeps me from watching the show I like off a cliffhanger so most of the time I change the channel for a minute. For me, commercials was sort of a requirement to watch and after a while, I could recognize what the product is only a second after the commercial starts.  As for internet ads, it can be helpful or disruptive depends on what the ad is.

I don’t have an all-time favorite ad, but as for this moment I remember liking this one because it’s funny. It’s a Filipino commercial but there’s 1 subtitle and I’m pretty sure you’ll get it right away. Check it out: YouTube Preview Image

Something personal about myself? I’m half Chinese so I have a Chinese name. For almost 10 years, I studied in a Chinese high school in Philippines where I studied Mandarin but still I can’t speak Mandarin fluently. I can read and write some Chinese characters and maybe say a sentence or two.

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Greatest lesson learned from someone else

Greatest lesson learned from someone else? There are a lot to choose from but from the past readings and thoughts I’ve had these past few weeks, there is one that is now stuck in my head.

Since I was young, I’ve been a very academic person. The need to understand all the concepts and problems thrown in front of me is in my genes – I would think back then. As I get older, I become more and more stressed as everything around me gets so complicated and difficult. I would think so hard I feel my head is going to explode or I would get to the point that I feel like giving up. In those moments, my solution is to think even more harder. I believe that my response is because of the expectations of others and that creates pressure.

When I was in my first year high school (9th grade), my tutor gave me an advice in studying. Back then, I believe that his advice is ridiculous and it didn’t make any sense until I reached grade 12 here in Canada. He told me a simple statement: “Not everything is meant to be understood”. Of course I was being stubborn and I kept my old habits. Then when I came upon an essay that debates about the origin of the world: evolution or genesis. I completely don’t understand anything! Genesis is all about being religious and having faith; Evolution is a theory with evidences but still not proven to be true. If I think about it too much, the thoughts just go on and on like an eternal loop. For instance, if God created us, who created Him? or what started the evolution? what came first, chicken or egg? Questions don’t seem to stop because there’s is no right answer. This is when I realized the real meaning of that statement. Sometimes I have to believe in something and stop trying to understand it; let it go and move on.

P.S.  I still think that trying to understand things is a good thing especially when learning new stuff . It’s in human nature to be curious but there are certain boundaries in where we just have to believe.

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superstars

What if your superstar supervisor who has a great talent in putting your business to the top ten has some temperamental problem that disrupts the organization, where do you draw the line?

In economics, the way to deal with this is through the weighing the cost and benefit. Now, let’s say that the time spent by the bullied employees crying or plotting against the supervisor costs money to the company then the benefits by the superstar will be all a waste. We cannot also forget the culture set by the supervisor may cause a disaster to the company like a rippling effect. It will like one person’s productivity versus its employees. When this problem isn’t solved immediately, soon the company will have trouble keeping its employees and can develop a bad reputation.

The kind of supervisor a company needs is the one who follow the norms and the culture decided by the company itself. The success of the company not only depends on the employees’ talents but also how the company communicates. The organizational behavior within the company will determine the company’s long term prosperity.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/your-business/business-categories/human-resources/taming-a-temperamental-superstar-employee/article1822606/

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Public Cloud

“To the cloud”, the Windows 7 commercial says. The commercial clearly states that this “cloud” enables users to access or share files or applications remotely over the internet but only with windows vista and windows 7.

According to market research, this trend will follow the business world in the following year. The year 2011 will be a big year for all major technology companies. The public cloud will be used in business so applications and services  can be accessed through internet. In addition to this market forecast, IDC also predicts that smartphones and tablets will overpowers the PC’s in the world; most of the people in the world can now surf the internet without the use of PC, instead they can use handheld devices.

The forecast basically says that demands for the public cloud, smartphones and tablets will continue to rise and when it reaches the peak, technology companies better have the right inventory stocks for the consumers. They won’t like it if opportunity cost will increase if excess demand occurs. Still, the market is risky. Excess supply can happen if no further research will be conducted by companies.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/02/smartphones-and-tablets-take-over-in-2011-researchers-say/

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Entrepreneurial company: Nintendo – Microsoft

After Sony and Microsoft has taken over the gaming industry in the year 2001, winning over Nintendo’s Mario game. Nintendo has taken a step back and instead of improving in the quality of the game such as specification, Nintendo focused on the fun and enjoyment people are having while playing video games.

They have started a new era of the video games with their launching of Wii. Their innovation skills are obviously paying-off. Their company’s stock has double over a span of few years after the release of their wii.

I certainly believe that they are an entrepreneurial company. All of the signs are clear: They are innovative; producing new products whenever possible (their new ds coming next year). Their innovations has given the company fast positive results although I’m sure that there are some heavy risks involve.

At the moment, Microsoft is introducing a much improved wii, I believe, called Kinect. Time can only tell for now if Microsoft will gain the same results that Nintendo had years ago. The innovations and risks are already in place. For now, we’re waiting for the increase or decrease in company’s revenue and profitability that will possibly develop their reputation as entrepreneurial company.

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Hawks vs. Doves

After the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, the Fed is making decisions in how they are going to handle the recovery. There are 2 groups of people that are strongly introducing opposite approaches:

Hawks

– against inflation

– believes that Fed shouldn’t interfere for the consequences might be a future inflation that will put the world in a worse situation

Doves

– argued that the Fed has not done enough which leads to a much slower recovery compared to Fed’s forecast

– believes in more aggressive approach

Much of last year, Fed went to Hawks. But when they’re disappointed with the outcome. They became more aggressive since then.

Fed will be spending over $600 billion. Their main purpose this time will be lowering long-term interest rate.

However, there will be risks involved in this. If they buy more bonds, dollar value may take a hit.

Also, interest rates will be lower; thus, less savings and investments will be created. People in general will have lower income. Companies will be reluctant in investing.

Now we don’t know if that would help the world economy.  We still have high unemployment rate. We don’t know if creating inflation in the market will speed up the recovery or worsen it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/04/business/04leonhardt.html?src=mv&ref=business

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/04/business/economy/04fed.html?src=mv&ref=business

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