As my last post for this blog (For Now) I would like to reflect on my time in COMM 296: Introduction to marketing. I really enjoyed the class as well as the blogging experience as I feel that I got to discuss a variety of interesting topics that fall within the marketing world. I learned a lot within the marketing class itself and I look forward to taking more courses next year as I specialize more in Marketing.
So cheers to a great class!
It seems that there have been several fashion design collaborations recently in the fashion world. Earlier this month Lanvin unveiled his collection for H&M – People lined up for hours outside the specific stores to get their hands on the designs – They sold out in minutes.
And when the doors opened on Valentino for GAP today it was the same story.
A fellow Marketing Student, Ricky Lee took an interest to both of these collaborations and discussed what he thought of both. As I was reading his blog I couldn’t help but think about the wonders that pairing with a higher end more ‘celebrity’ designer does for a company. I began to think about celebrity marketing and the power that celebrities have on promotions and purchase of goods.
Take Oprah for example. The ‘Oprah Effect’ is pretty straightforward – anything she touches turns to gold. People look at what she reads for her book club or what products she recommends and almost immediately they are sold out. It has even been argued that she was responsible for up to a million votes for Obama during the 2008 Obama/McCain Presidential Election.
The influence that celebrities have is massive. Their influence goes beyond more that just an increase in the demand of the product – Consumer are even willing to through the roof is they admire the person who is representing the product. This is very important to consider when marketing a product. Below is one of my favourite celebrity advertising campaigns – Emma Watson for Burberry (Notice how they don’t even say what the name of the company anywhere on the ad – you just know it is – talking about branding)
I came across these photos this morning – National Geographic is holding their annual photo contest and people have been submitting some of the most stunning photos I have ever seen. I thought I would share them because I am seriously lost for words trying to describe them. Enjoy!
The Boston Globe newspaper site. Click on the link for all the picture submissions as well as information about where the pictures were taken and who by.
I love music. I can usually be found paroozing various music sites such as Hype Machine for the new remixes, Earmilk for the mashups or itunes for the top 40 hits. I get really upset when my ipod dies and I am always looking forward to the walk from the UBC bus loop to my class because I get to get a couple songs in.
So yesterday when Itunes put up a notice saying that ‘ Tomorrow is just another day. That you will never forget’ – Naturally I got excited.
When I checked my itunes this morning – needless to say – I was a little disappointed. The Beatles music was now on itnues. Not to say that I don’t appreciate their music – I really do – I grew up with it.
I just found myself asking if the hype that they created with the statement that tomorrow is a day that we will never forget was really proportional to what the announcement actually was. When it comes to their marketing strategies – The apple is falling far from the tree on this one because Apple is known to create hype to this effect for the unveiling of brand new, revolutionary products. The declaration that tomorrow is a day that we will never forget just because the Beatles are now on itunes seems like a bit much. The people who love the Beatles, already have their music.
I also think that the way in which this annoucement was presented will make it hard for Apple to make accouncements down the road about new artsits on itunes. AC/DC is currently not on itunes and saying that this is also another day that we will never forget isnt very creative. They have already gone big. So I look forward to seeing how they are going to top it.
For the past several months I have been working as an Intern for Vancouver Fashion Week. I got to participate and contribute to everything that goes into putting a weeks worth of fashion shows – the media, production, and events.During the fashion week itself we had a ‘eco friendly segment’ in which the designers only used eco friendly fabrics in their creations and designs. When interviewed, many of the designers expressed that they want organic and eco friendly to be seen as high fashion and sustainable in the industry – pun intended.
This is a prime example of consumer behaviour – and the influences that consumer have on each other. Because the fully eco friendly idea is still a new one in the industry there are very few advocates for the types of clothing. After seeing the collections put forward during Vancuover Fashion Week I know that several people walked away surprised by what could be done with organic materials.
I have attached some pictures below of my favourite eco friendly designer – Laura Siegel from New York. She is a recent graduate from the Parsons fashion design program and just won the award at Vancouer Fashion Week for showing the most promise as a new and upcoming designer.
I was casually browsing through some blogs last week and came across a post that discussed a ‘PR Fail‘. The post discussed how someone began tweeting as the cast members of AMC show : Mad Men – about the lives of the top New York advertising executives in the 1950’s. AMC found out when the pages started getting tons of hits and immediatly sent in the lawyers and pulled the accounts.
The post that I was reading discussed how AMC should have handled the whole situation and I could not agree more. The link to the Post is below.
Advertising is getting more and more difficult. Its getting harder to come up with creative ways to market your product. Social Media is a very effective way to reach a large audience because so many people have access to it. Putting the characters on Twitter is a fun way to promote the show but also a way for the people to feel that they can relate to the characters – that the characters are real. This is a wonderful way to draw people in and keep them there.
Since then AMC has learned its lesson. Don Draper is back up on twitter along with the rest of the cast of Mad Men.
Coming up with new and creative marketing campaigns in order to continue to get your products out there is always a challenge. Everyone knows the Old Spice campaign – The ‘studly’ man with the deep wooving voice – how could you not. The marketing campaigns that follow a story, character or theme are the ones that I like and look forward to seeing.
Though the advertisement I have chosen to blog about this week came to me through a friend. She sent it to me telling me to check out this commercial. It began with a car driving along roads in an european countryside. I was a sunny day, there was music playing and I started to wonder why on earth I was watching this commercial. I was quickly silenced as a monster of some sort appeared on the screen and screamed. I had been caught totally off guard.
It turns out that this commercial was for a German Energy Drink company. The German at the end of the commercial translates to – ” You have never been this awake.” After watching this commercial – this slogan was defiantly true. This company preceded to broadcast a series of similar commercials. Anything from two people walking romantically down a beach to meditating in a rainforrest. Needless to say they all ended in a zombie poppping up on the screen and scaring the viewer half to death.
This commercial grabbed my attention. I will not forget what the company is just because it had such an emotional (fright – but just the perfect amount of it) impact on me. This commerical has recieved a lot of criticism because some people have been to scared by it – but if you ask me – thats what makes the product so interesting.
In the first few days of class we were shown a you tube clip about the 2011 Ford Fiesta- A small, funky European car that is now making an appearance on the roads in North America. The commercial involved a Road Trip car giveaway where people were asked to film themselves. There was a lot of laughing and blasting music. Needless to say – Ford Fiesta is targeting a young and fun market.
Last night I was watching the CBC TV Show Being Erica. This show is about a young woman named Erica Strange (Erin Karpluk) who gets a chance to go back in time and fix the major regrets she has in her life. She is the most wonderful character -so charming. A few minutes into the episode Erica got into her business partners car – A 2011 Ford Fiesta.
As they started to talk about the car I had to stop and remind myself that this was something I needed to blog about. Julianne (Erica’s business parter at their newly founded publishing company) is so excited about the car and excitedly tells Erica that ‘ Its sleek and its sexy and in the cutest shade of magenta that I have ever seen
Then I started thinking about product placement and if it actually works. Julianne and Erica are both young and successful people. They are down to earth, hard – workers but know how to have a good time. I know it certainly caught my attention when they were driving around in the car belting out some song. I thought to myself – they really look like they are having fun.
For people who love who Erica and Julianne are as characters would defiantly take a second look at the car. If you can place a product right without making it to cheesy I think it most certainly works. It certainly made me do a double take.
I have recently become absolutely obsessed with Mad Men. The American T.V drama that focuses on work and social lives of the Mad (Madison) Men – The huge Marketing and Advertising Executives in New York in the 1960’s. Beside the fact that I have a passion for how world of marketing works, what makes the marketing campaigns within the show so interesting is the constant conflict between the old and the new styles of marketing to consumers.
In class earlier this year we examined the different marketing eras. The Mad Men sit at the cross roads between the sales marketing era – described as the push era, and the market oriented era – where the customer is King. In the clip I have attached we can see that the client is stuck in the sales marketing era – and wants to throw the product at their female audience. As Don Draper (Lead in Mad Men) says in the clip. She doesn’t want to feel like one of the hundreds of lipsticks in a box – She wants to be the one.
So why am I blogging about this? This evolution into the marketing era paved way for the current marketing structures of today: Value based marketing. Many marketing campaigns make today make one feel like an individual – People we want to feel valued and that their opinions are important. For example – the appeal in Dell computers is that fact that the computer is literally assembled for you. Whatever you want in your computer is placed there for you. The fact that it is so personal has huge appeal.
For companies to stay afloat and succeed in the economy today the advancement of personal marketing is so important. What will the next era of marketing be? Who knows. But what I do know is that it must continue to be personal.
Hello everyone.
Welcome to my blog for my introduction to marketing class at the Sauder School of Business. The goal of this class is to help us develop a fundamental marketing knowledge of all aspects of the business world as well as the important of marketing in day to day life.
In this blog I hope to comment on everything from interesting advertising campaigns, topics discussed in class to the ways that marketing presents itself in all forms of people and business around the world. I chose to name this blog “Minds on Marketing” simply because in the world we live in today – we are always having to think of new and creative ways to present products ideas and even people. There is some serious brain power required. Marketing is everywhere. Seriously.
Enjoy!