Marketing blog for COMM296

If a big company wants to make profits, market research, analysis and planning are significantly important. Our group uses the concepts from the book and apply to our consumer goods company, Starbucks. We are asked to make marketing analysis and planning for this famous coffee store.

Situation Analysis is our first assignment. We did a lot of company background research, learning Starbuck’s culture and vision, we also analysis the SWOT by comparing Starbucks with some of its competitor such as mc Donald’s and Tim Holton. We also study the whole coffee retailer store industry and conclude the opportunities and threats.

Second assignment is STP Outline. We divided the market into several segments and target customers. Our group works really well together and thanks to that, we receive the marks that we are all satisfied.

Last but not least, third assignment is making a video to present our whole project. We all want to be creative and also be different from groups. We searched and found a way to make cartoon movie which can put our voice in. We all think this is a good idea. We created a screen which is started a call from Mom to her son and he doesn’t want the products Starbucks produce. Then our consulting group appears and use this as a case to recommend our group’s suggestion. We spend a lot of time and effort on it but it is really fun to work with my group mates. I love this group assignment.

After reading the marketing blog from Erin Shea, http://www.luxurydaily.com/hermes-maintains-uber-luxury-status-exclusivity-with-product-control/ talking about the sales control, and reading the news of its sales revenue in first season, i want to write a blog about how i think Hermès is so successful promoting its products.

French luxury group Hermès recently posted a 16 percent rise in second-quarter sales. The sales ($1.19 billion) with highest growth were contributed by Asia and North America market. In my opinion, the great success of Hermès is a result of combining heritage with new creative innovation and targeting the specific group of customers accurately. The Luxury magazine “Vogue” stated that the high profit of Hermès might be due to the powerful campaign of 2013 spring/summer collection and the Hermès Home collection.

This year’s spring/summer collection is a huge contributor of dramatic increasing revenue.  If someone ask u how to use some words to define Hermès, the answer might be Classic, Business, Vintage and serious. However, SS13 campaign combined the delightful sport life together with its classic design and also made some innovation like providing products with warm and bright colors which suit the spring and summer apparel which younger customers are crazy with.

As was founded in 1839 in Paris, Hermès is famous for its hand-crafted leather goods all over the world. The company hold the world tour “Festival des Métiers” which demonstrating their artists’ exquisite hand-made skills and products to the Hermès fans. This is also a brilliant advertising of the brand.

“Hermès has no desire to become “masstige” – a mass producer of prestige goods,” says CEO, Patrick Thomas. “If we put a big H on a bag, we will sell millions. But what if to grow faster you compromise on quality and the finishing of the product? Then people will begin to say, ‘Ah, you know Hermès is no longer the same.’ That’s why we should never do that. It would be a capital sin when you have an asset, a jewel like Hermès.”

Preserving its prestige and integrity is what Hermès always points out emphatically. When we look at its price tag, we can find that Hermès sells $500 bracelets and $15000 Birkin handbags. It is easy to see that Hermès chooses the richest people as their target customers. With the rapid growth of billionaires, the demand for super exclusive luxury rises as well. Hermès perfectly took that chance and make huge profit from these people.

Pepsi-Cola Inc. is one of the most famous companies in the world. It is a global food and beverage company. Why is Pepsi so successful? I think the most important reason is its great advertisement.

Firstly, Pepsi hire a lot of famous movie stars or singers to branding itself. Celebrities like Britney spears, Shaquille O’Neal, Shakira, David Beckham, Beyoncé, Nicki Minaj, One Direction  appeared in print, in-store, TV, Internet advertising Pepsi Product. Pepsi also divided its business into different regions, like Europe and the UK, Asia , Australia and the US. Pepsi paid local celebrities to advertise for its products. This makes their advertisement more effective.

One Direction – Pepsi commercial ©2012

watch?v=QxcerxiSD9o

Pepsi’s advertisements are also very creative and more likely to attract people’s eyes. Here are some examples.

Pepsi “Straw” Advertisement. The Straw in this advertisement seems so thirsty. “Ask for more” is the title for this advertisement.

Another Pepsi “Straws” Advertisement. Everyone knows that Coca-Cola is the biggest competitor against Pepsi. In this picture, the straw on the left refuses to go into the Coca-Cola’s can but the straw on the right is staying comfortably in Pepsi’s can. This promote the idea that Pepsi tastes better than Coca-Cola.

Pepsi “Access” Advertisement

BBDO created a subway poster that has a fully functional headphone jack embedded in it, which plays samples of various exclusive tracks available on its website.

Being in a tense competition against Coca-Cola, Pepsi always has better advertisement than Coca-Cola. To keep this advantage, Pepsi should continue to hire popular celebrities to advertise their products in different market. For instance, using football players like David Beckham to attract more sport enthusiast and singers such as Beyoncé to attract younger generations.  Pepsi should also make more innovative advertisement to gain more profits.

If you like reading fashion magazine and following fashion trends, there is no chance that the word Christian Louboutin is not in your memory. Louboutin is the most famous shoe brand which is known as its red-sole pumps which range around $500 to $22,000 a pair. Louboutin is also the king of brand strategy. When we talk about creative marketing, we think like fancy, sexy, flashy. Christian Louboutin interpreted creative marketing as, “less is more.”

Louboutin won its trademark for the red-sole heels in 2008 that means only Louboutin can make red-sole heels shoes for “women’s high fashion designer footwear”. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office also states that only Louboutin has this exclusive right. After that Louboutin sued YSL, the french fashion house in April 2011 over allegations that the label has copied its signatured red-sole. Christian Louboutin finally won its case at September 5th,2011.  During this whole case, Louboutin not only won the compensation but also make its brand  more unforgetable and famous. This is a pretty smart move.

A single red-sole pair of shoes has become an unique image and highly associated with fashion. After this case, competitor can not even dare copy its concept, especially now that it’s legally trademarked. Now red-sole shoes will forever be the brand identity of Christian Louboutin.

When you see a woman wearing one of these classic red-sole shoes walking down the streets, she is instantly connected with being classy and fashionable. It’s undeniable that the quality of product sells the shoes, but there’s something more than just quality. The strategic marketing campaign behind the brand make Christian Louboutin successful.

After the new iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C’s launch, many people were skeptical about its popularity due to its similarities in appearance with the original iPhone 5. However, the first three days after the launch, Apple confirmed that the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C sold over 9 million units in total. This is almost twice the amount of last year’s iPhone 5 launch total which was 5 million. According to CNET, the initial supply of iPhone 5S ran out of stock just after a couple of minutes of the initial launch on Apple’s official online store. In United States of America, United Kingdom, France and Germany, the Apple online store had to push the shipping day of iPhone 5s gold to October after the launch day due to the excess demand. The demand for the golden iPhone 5s was highest in the Asian market. In China, the black market is selling the gold iPhone 5S for twice the price of the official online store. Some buyers are reselling their purchased iPhone in order to earn a profit.

I think the major reason for this is because Apple company realized that gold is a wildly popular color in both China and India,which countries has a great amount of population and also potential customers.

I think Apple chose the gold color because of its popularity in Asian countries where there is a dense population and large target market for potential customers. This is also Apple’s first time putting ‘gold’ on their main products which provides a fresh take on the traditional black and silver/white iPhones .

reference:

http://www.fastcompany.com/3018073/where-are-they-now/apple-seems-to-have-scored-another-iphone-hit

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There are more and more clothing companies putting half-naked models into their advertisement. So is it true or not, “Sex is only used to garb a viewer’s attention”. The results of Calvin Klein and Victoria’s Secret shows that sex related advertising really worked.

Most of these advertisement give the viewers impression of ” if you buy this, you will be like this.” firstly, you will be sexually attractiver after wearing our product , make yourselves feel more sexy in our own view or you can have better sex.

In addition, there are plenty of cases in which sexual positioning strategies have resulted in long-term success. One of those is Calvin Klein. He has successfully imbued his brand’s identity with sexuality. For well over 30 years, sex in one form or another has been a mainstay in Calvin Klein fragrance, fashion, underwear, and accessories ads. The result? In 2005, products with Calvin’s name generated at least $1 billion in annual revenue.

reference:

http://www.brandingstrategyinsider.com/2008/03/does-sex-in-adv.html http://kelleygraham.com/sites/default/files/sex-sells-but-should-it-JLERI%20Vol%209%20No%201%20and%202%202006%20p%20109-118.pdf