Jerry Chung's Blog

Google Docs was the first online web office suite available in the internet.  It was released in 2005 and the spreadsheet function was also released the next year.  However, Google Docs isn’t the only web app out there that serves this function now.  Recently, my friends who use hotmail started to use SkyDrive to share word documents with me.  I was surprised that there was another company that would want to compete with the initial Google Docs.  Skydrive was just developed last year in June and it utilizes the Microsoft Office suite including powerpoint.  One big limitation to Skydrive is that the user must register a Hotmail account.

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I don’t find Skydrive using any promotional strategies at all.  I tried searching on Youtube for any commercials about it but the term “Skydrive” is already used for many other things that make it hard to look for.  I also don’t see any direct marketing such as emails, commercials, telemarketing etc.  Possibly Skydrive is a free app to use on the internet so they don’t spend that much resources into promoting it.  But I think for it to become successful, they have to make people who are currently using Google docs be aware of the fact that there is an alternative!  However they did create this kind of infomercial back in 2010 about how to use Skydrive.

I guess there is much personal selling in Skydrive.  Since Skydrive offers the ability for users to manipulate their own documents that is linked to their own Hotmail account, I suppose this is more of a personal selling.  Users are able to manage their own documents and create the personal documents which I think is selling on a more personal level.  However, Google Docs offer the same functions.  In all, would you use Skydrive? or Google Docs?

The newly released 3D TVs are already in stores now.  Still in its introduction stage for this product, there are only a few companies that produce the 3D TV (Panasonic, Samsung, LG, Sony, etc.)  Are 3D TVs that cool?  Personally as a techy, I would want one but the price of a 3D TV is still really high.  Probably because of its R&D costs that is pushing up this price.  I think I’m a late majority in the diffusion of innovation curve meaning I would buy the 3D TV at a way later time when the prices drop and more companies’ TVs to choose from.

3D TVs are already instores and selling since 2010.  I recently been to bestbuy and future shop to try out the 3D TV but I just really want to criticize the fact that you just have to put on glasses to watch the TV.  For a general consumer like me, I watch TV for relaxation and would want to watch it with several people.  But putting on the glasses is just a not convenient.  I also heard that a 3D TV only comes with two pairs of glasses.  I don’t think that would be sufficient for my whole family.

I know some people just can’t stand watching 3D and would get dizzy after watching it.  BUT due to improvements to the TV, 3D TVs have the option of switching to 2D.  Will the 3D TV be a blast in the market?  Just like the past where DVDs replaced VCDs and when VCDs replaced VHS tapes.  It will depend on the consumers and the early majority to determine if the 3D TV will replace the current HDTV that is dominating the market for TVs.

Although I don’t buy many products from Sephora, I still occassionally do when I have to buy presents for my friends.  As I was walking around Richmond Centre today, I was browsing around and I saw a giant Hello Kitty on the glass window on Sephora.  I thought it was such a creative marketing idea.  This new line extension in Sephora really gives a large positive impact on its consumers.  Even thought a guy such as myself isn’t the primary target for Sephora, but I was interested in it.  I guess this marketing strategy really would attract new customers or innovators into Sephora.

Adding onto my previous post, this is another example of non-celebrity advertising.  This is probably a growing trend with using cartoon characters in its products.  To differentiate Sephora from its competitors such as MAC and other beauty product retailers, the new Hello Kitty product line combines the image of Hello Kitty into its products.  Hello Kitty‘s brand by itself already adds value in its products.  With Sephora carrying the brand name, it adds even more value to the product.  This tells consumers that it is trustworthy, reliable and good quality.

Hello Kitty‘s image probably targets younger consumers.  But thinking about it, it could also target older women too.  There is a simple reason behind it.  Isn’t beauty and cosmetic products about trying to make the individual more young looking than old?  Using this figure in the sense of beauty products is really smart I think.  It tells people to think “Hey! I’m not that old, I can still use these young and cute products for myself!”  Just like their slogan “Hello Kitty Beauty!”

Wanting to comment on Amanda’s blog post here.  In the same situation as Amanda, I always have to commute to school and I see the Beard Papa’s ads on the sides of the skytrain.  I agree with Amanda that there are  advantages in using non-celebrities on advertisements.  And possibly celebrities can cause a dissociative image for the company if the unsuited celebrity was chosen to be presented in the advertisements.  BUT!  it is different when a company use a non-celebrity in their advertisements.  Since they have no news and unknown to the audience, they won’t have a risk of being a dissociative member.  In contrast, they may not be as well as an aspirational member as celebrities.

I want to turn to a different perspective to an example from HK.  High school Tutors on advertisements.

The advertisements are displayed and showed all around in Hong Kong like on giant billboards, sides of busses, posters around the city and many more sources.  The tutors display themselves as if they were celebrities.  I think it is a really creative idea because it attracts the target audience really well.  High School Tutors would want high school students as their consumers and would want to appeal to them.  High school students wouldn’t want the classic teacher image from their tutors.  As a reult, the tutors “branded” themselves as a different type of educator and creates a relaxed feeling for high school students.  I think the Hong Kong’s tutoring industry is doing really well because I heard the high school curriculum is really difficult so there is a demand for these tutors.

To read more about Hong Kong tutors on advertisements, try this blog here.

Why are super bowl ads so popular?  Why do companies use so much money in making their ads for the super bowl?  Looking at the statistics: around 111 million viewers in the United States!  (http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=ap-superbowl-ratings) That is around 1/3 of the US population watching the super bowl.  Of course companies would want to take this advantage and set their commercials at this time to capture most of their target audience.  In particular, I love this commercial:

This is the new Volkswagen model’s commercial.  It seems to be targetting the audience pretty well.  From the commercial, we can see the father playing around with the kid in the end.  As it looks to me that they are targeting the fathers in families.  I assume that mostly the people who watch the super bowl are men who are already fathers already.  This commercial captures pretty much all of its target in the United States. 

The general impression I get from my friends about this commercial is how adorable that child in the Darth Vader costume is.  I was once like a hardcore Star Wars fan so I liked this commercial.  Perhaps, this commercial may possibly appeal to all the Star Wars fans out there.  And if moms are watching this commercial at home with their husband, this commercial may appeal to them too if they also find the child adorable.

Think this is a great commercial?  Check out more of the 2011’s Super Bowl commercials here:

http://www.superbowl-commercials.org/

This is probably awhile ago but ever since I started blogging, my friends tell me that I can actually start making money just from blogging!  Isn’t that great?  Bloggers just blog for fun or just for leisure but now, just from blogging you can actually earn money.  And Google recently just updated their Google Adsense page to v3.  Read more about it in BLOGS@DiGiTSS:

http://blogs.digitss.com/news/google-adsense-v3-new-adsense-interface/

So here is what Google Adsense does:  Bloggers can use Google adsense onto their blog.  Google Adsense will then generate a number of advertisements on the Bloggers’ blog pages.  The advertisements are smart in a way (because they are programmed to), where it will display advertisements that is related to the blog post or blog content.  Isn’t that great?  When viewers go on a blog, they will see advertisements that they may be interested in since they are reading something similar in the blog.

From the advertiser’s point of view: Great!  the advertisements are generally getting exposed to the main target audience.  This saves them time and effort to look just for the suitable target market.

From the blogger’s point of view:  Great!  advertisements help me generate revenue and I don’t even have to write up blogs just to cater towards certain advertisements.

Downsides to Google Adsense:  I actually tried using Google Adsense in the past.  But the sad thing was that the blogger gets paid by the amount of clicks and views from their blogs to the company’s websites through the advertisements.  Meaning that if your site is not popular, you will not earn much revenue.  But I guess that bloggers’ main purpose of blogging is not for the money but for leisure.

This post was inspired by the courtesty of Ting Ting from this blog post:
https://blogs.ubc.ca/hoitingtai/2011/01/19/transit_in_hk/

I was in Hong Kong for like most of my life and I witnessed how advertisements and promotions were growing in the society. Here are several pictures of the Hong Kong’s “Skytrain” if you want to describe it that way (actually called MTR).

They try to utilize all their space and available area for advertisements. Since Hong Kong is a really packed city, a lot of people will need to use the train to move to places. Advertising on the train is the most suitable area. This can maximize the amount of exposure for the advertisements.

If we look into the macroenvironment’s demographics that these advertisements want to target towards, it is quite noticeable that demographics of all sorts of people are available on the MTR.  I see that most of the people ranging from kids to elders take the MTR as their main mean of transportation.  Well actually there are quite a range of people that advertisements on MTR cannot target such as wealthy/upper class people who ususally have a private car to move around to places.

How about Vancouver?  Does Vancouver have this type of advertisements on trains too?  Well, yes the skytrain does.  Since I’m from Hong Kong and lived here for a few years, I can make some general comparisons.  In Hong Kong, I must say that the advertisements are everywhere in the train station and on/in trains.  For the skytrain here, we still see quite some advertisments here and there but really not as many as Hong Kong trains.  If transit makes the space around the train station and in/on trains, they may earn more money!

Slap Chop – Such an amazing tool and popular.  Due to their frequent promoting commercials on tv, Slap Chop became a sensation in 2008 when Vince Offer made his appearance to promote the slap chop.

Here is a link to friend who also found Slap Chop interesting: https://blogs.ubc.ca/kathywong/2011/01/11/4/

Thanks Kathy for the video. And yes I watch this commercial really often on tv. And I do own the slap chop and the graty. Adding on to your point about target audience, I agree that they do target housewives and mothers. I think they show this commercial during mornings and early afternoons when most housewives are home. Then again, I think they also target people who live by themselves and will need a handy device to make their food. Thanks again!

One promotional strategy that Slap Chop uses in their commercials is the classic line: “If you call now, we will give you the graty AND an extra set of the slap chop + graty absolutely free!”  Housewives especially may want to go for the best deal and may go for this deal and purchase a set of slap chop.

Think the way how Slap Chop is promoting their product is successful?  At least I think the commercial leaves a lasting image in consumers’ minds.  It will probably be a good topic to talk about with friends and what you see it in stores, you may think “OH!  I heard about this before”

When I watched that commercial one year ago, I kept my eyes on the whole commercial and was so interested.  The developers of this commercial was really creative and was just out of the box compared to its competitors.  I think this promotion idea made a lot of people interested in the product.  Old Spice also made several other commercials that had the similar concept as this original one.  This commercial’s target audience is probably for adults for both women and men.  The actor’s first line was “Hello Ladies”  This line obviously  presented as an opening that attributed for women who are in a relationship already so that they would buy Old Spice products for their men.  This commercial also appeals to men because men would want to have an ideal body like the actor by using Old Spice products.

The promotion side for this commercial was straight forward and was to the point.  Unlike other commercials, this commercial is short and simple.  Although the commercial did not show the price and place but the promotional and product side of the commercial really brought forth its point.  The promotion was creative and made the audience appeal to the product.  From one of the 5C’s: Channel, channel was important as well.  This commercial was shown in movie theatres, tv, facebook, tweeter, youtube and probably other sources as well.  As its target audience are adults, these channels are suitable since most adults will come into contact with those sources.

Please share your thoughts and ideas about this commercial!