Think in a Marketing Sense

As I just read the news that “WestJet Beats Air Canada For Customer Satisfaction In Survey Conducted By TNS Canada”, participants were asked to rate airlines in the categories of “genuinely cares”, WestJet’s scores were approximately double that of Air Canada’s.

As much as I love my group project and I got the chance to know about WestJet through the whole teamwork in this marketing course, I decided to spend more time digging more information of how WestJet manages to build up its public relations in a way to reflect its culture and maintain its positive friendly image.

WestJet offers event sponsorship to Fun n Festival Series, as fun is an important aspect of the culture at WestJet, so it makes sense that WestJet partners with some of the best festivals from coast to coast. Also WestJet get more access to potential customers who values “fun” in the festival, so I would say it’s a smart way to build a positive image and build up more relations to the public via doing sponsorship to this event.

(http://www.upmagazine.com/blog/mt-norquay-gets-head-start-2012-2013-ski-season)

If you take a look at the paragraph captured from the blog of WestJet, the way that they talk is not selling you the package of a vacation but telling you the way to plan an excellent vacation. “We”s are used as WestJet and “you” are our guests in the blogs. They get the customers involved and reach the potential customers in a folksy and egalitarian approach.

(http://blog.aircanadavacations.com/disney-cruise-line/)

This is another capture from the blog of Air Canada-the largest competitor of WestJet in the domestic market. There is no doubt that Air Canada does a good job in conveying the clear message of what the package of the wonderful Disney cruise contains. However, when we compare it with what WestJet does, this is not as interesting as somehow consumers foresee how the vacation will be like through the company’s public relations and they cannot see the added value, fun, for this vacation.

We can see through the differences between WestJet and Air Canada in terms of public relations. There is obviously no “right” and “false” answer to how to build and maintain relationships with the public, but it seems customers do have a preferred way of receiving the messages from the alternative companies.

Project Glass: One day… 

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9c6W4CCU9M4)

Looking at this more-than-17-million-hit-rate video of Google Project Glass, with the functions of music player, planning the route, taking photos and so on, this glass is like a wearable smartphone to some extent.

(http://im40andstilladork.com/2012/08/googles-project-glass-offers-all-sorts-of-alerting-potential/)

Earlier before iPhone5 came out, this glass worn by a fashion designer Diane and other models was a huge highlight in New York Fashion week. There is no doubt that it was not only a successful way to attract people’s eyeballs, but also gets people to connect this Google glass to fashion subconsciously. Another attempt to promote this novel product was, Google arranged the engineers to wear these glasses to record the view of skydiving, which draw a lot of attention especially from male sports enthusiasts. These are smart ways of Google to “sell” their brand and build up the image of Project Glass in people’s mind.

I have to say Google has a great sense of catching consumers’ lifestyle. It is the time when people value convenience the most ever while the high technique plays an important role in it. With the voice-command activation, people can even go out without a smartphone in hand checking all kinds of information in this information overloaded society, this glass caters to people’s trend of tracking more and carrying less.

(http://themimesis.com/2012/04/04/google-glasses-in-real-life-how-will-they-work/)

However, let’s think of the problems that this innovative glass could bring to us. Paying attention to the route using the right eye while driving using the other would probably be a challenging skill that drivers have to own if they decide to wear it on the way to work. Imagine there is a stranger who takes photos of you every ten seconds without your permission when you are eating a pie in a hurry, is this glass actually helping improve the harmony of our life?

When you type in “iPhone5” in Youtube, the long list of results would probably take you half of the day to watch all these fancy videos of iPhone5. Although the newest generation of iPhone5 is not as surprising as many people expect, the new phone has hit a record within 24 hours of pre-order, to more than 200 million, Apple said.

It seems many people are not focusing on the new functions that iPhone5 has lounged when they booked the new phone. The trend to own an iPhone has been a social “culture”. I wonder how Apple manage to make their product to be more than just a mobile device, but also a mind and a “culture” that consumers accept.

Promotion would definitely be one of the reasons how Apple successfully conveys this “culture”. If you spend some time watching the official trailer of iPhone5, there may be some hints there in terms of promoting via social media. In the very beginning, Jonny Ive, Apple’s senior vice president in charge of design is introducing iPhone5 in a white background, which was advocated as the “noble” colour by Apple, according to Fortune Magazine. The white background plus the brief image feel like an iPhone popping up in the customers’ eyes.  The combination of numbers and images vividly emphasizes the effects of 18% lighter and 20% thinner and shows how real it is happening to iPhone5, which increases the desire to purchase this new phone. The video also shows iPhone5 is used in the coffee shop, in the office, in everywhere of people’s life. All of these places make people feel they are the protagonists of this “noble” product. Other details such as the carefully wonderful  process indicates iPhone5 is a customized product which is the best choice and worth owning in the promotion.

There is no doubt that advertisements are now everywhere for Apple’s products. With these smart ways to promote,  it is understandable now why many people yearn for this new iPhone5.

http://www.apple.com

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