With the group project finished and handed in, I can say with certainty that I am very satisfied with how our video ended up. I think we all are quite fond of our video, and rightly so, since we spent quite a bit of time and effort on it. It also helped that we were able to find some amusement from thinking up puns to include in the video. I feel that we did a good job of managing our time so that we weren’t rushed at the end. Hearing my recorded voice was a bit awkward, especially once it was slowed down, but I like the video nonetheless. Yahel and Dina did a great job with the video editing and sound selection; I’m really impressed with how well they pieced our script with the visuals.  Also, I love the ending song.

As for Assignment #1 and #2, I think we put in a good effort. A few of our members were upset over the marking for those assignments, but I think the evaluations were fair for this class and I’m content with how we performed. Perhaps if we were to do this again we’d add more detail about the target market and change our positioning statement for Assignment #2. I also do wish the work was more fairly distributed, since I felt that Arslan and Mickdad didn’t get as engaged into the work as the rest of our group did.

Overall, I liked my group and my project. Westjet was a fun company to analyze, and my teammates were interesting and diversely talented individuals. The class itself was also engaging – I enjoyed the use of videos to illustrate different marketing ideas, and Professor Silva’s cold calling made class discussion entertaining. One day, I think I will look at this course with fond memories as my introduction to Marketing.

Image source: newswire.ca

Seth Godin’s post on the meaning of “it’s too expensive” was a really interesting piece that made me reflect on how I justify my spending. It also reminded me of an experience I had browsing department store in Japan. I was looking at the artfully arranged fruit section of the grocery department when I saw a counter of mini seedless watermelons packaged in beautiful boxes. The melons were displayed as on sale for 1200 Yen (15CDN), and were almost completely sold out. I remember balking at the price of these tiny melons and wondering why people were willing to pay that much for them. Yet, only moments after, I went and spent far more than $15 buying pastries and lunch. I thought the watermelons were too expensive, but it wasn’t that I couldn’t afford it; it was just that I thought its value was less than the price.

With some the knowledge gained from these months in marketing class, I think I have a better perspective on why those melons cost what they did. First, I’ve learned that “too expensive” is really just a way to say one of three things:

1) I don’t want the product enough to justify the cost

2) I can find a cheaper, satisfactory alternative to this product

3) I want this product and I would buy it if only I had the money

In most cases where I hear (or utter) the sentiment, it’s not because of reason 3.

I grew up in North America, where fruits are relatively plentiful staple product that is sold cheaply by the pound. In Japan, fruits are considered more of a delicacy and are often given as gifts. As such, the quality standards are higher; you won’t be able to find a bruised or misshapen fruit in any of their grocery stores. The price of that watermelon reflected how the fruit was valued differently there, and it might have been considered a great deal in that perspective. The reason I thought the melon was overpriced had nothing to do with the actual cost of fruit. It was simply that I wasn’t the right consumer for it.

I think this applies for most of our opinions on the worth of a product. I wouldn’t spend $200 on a luxury bottle of perfume, but many people do and find great value in their purchase. So perhaps the best translation of “it’s too expensive,” is, in many cases, “I’m not the target market.”

Image source: foodsaketokyo.blogspot.com

Source: Amazon.com

I think this book could be described as an introduction to current marketing research. It discusses the importance of subconscious desires in purchasing behaviour that is often ignored in marketing textbooks, which tend to consider consumers as rational decision makers instead of the highly influenceable and varied group that they are. A lot of the information is quite strange to think about, like how smoking warnings actually prompt smokers to light up more, while others are more intuitive, like how daily rituals affect purchasing choices. It’s also a relatively easy read and you can tell that the author is passionate about his research in consumer behaviour.

The book has some interesting studies about how consumers subconsciously react to advertisements, and consequently how marketing affects our behaviour without our knowledge. It’s actually quite frightening to think about how much our behaviour is shaped by external influences. Lindstrom also talks about the use of new technology is changing market research, specifically, the use of fMRI and other neurotechnology to help marketers understand consumer behaviour by examining how their brains react to advertisements. While I’m a bit wary of the results of his studies, I’m blown away by his descriptions of how successful corporations use their knowledge to create advertisement campaigns. The amount of detail and planning that goes into marketing a brand is outstanding. Despite the great insights on how companies influence our buying decisions, there are some problems in the book that limit my enjoyment of it. I’m not keen on how Lindstrom makes conclusive statements on how consumers react to certain advertising tactics based on the fMRI scans of a limited group of volunteers. The research he’s done is a good to consider in seeing general trends in how consumers behave, but I don’t think there is nearly enough evidence to support the cause-and-effect relationships he describes.

Overall, Buyology is still an entertaining and interesting book on the psychology of buying, and if nothing else, it will at least give you a better perspective to examine what influences your own purchasing behaviour.

Source: Amazon.com

* I think if you enjoy this book, you’ll also like ‘How We Decide’ by Jonah Lehrer. It doesn’t have the    marketing perspective of Buyology, but it does give a clearer overall look at the cognitive processes  involved in decision making.

One of the first things that come to mind when I think of the ethical issues of marketing is smoking advertisements, and Dina’s post on the American Tobacco Company’s marketing efforts towards women during the suffragist movement was a fascinating example of the ethical dilemma of marketing. My initial reaction to the advertisements was similar to Dina’s: shock and distress. Yet, after some thought I think the ethical problems of ATC’s actions are not as clear as it seemed at first. First of all, I disagree with Dina’s statement that ‘marketing is not a manipulation of people’s minds,’ because in, essence, that is what marketing (and any form of argument or debate) is. When you convince someone of the value of something in any way, including through product education and product labelling, it can still be thought of as a manipulation of the thoughts of consumers, as you are changing their perspective and emotions towards a product. Consumers do have choice and information, and the market transaction does involve selling a product that has value to consumers. But, the nature of the value can be psychological, and that’s where marketing can have the most influence and where the ethical issues are greatest.

I think it’s easy to think that the company was using the heightened emotions and feminist ideals of the time to get women to smoke. But, on the other hand, the ATC was a well-known and respected company at the time, and featuring women smoking in its advertisements could also be seen as a statement in support of the suffragettes’ campaign for greater equality.

So what was the legacy of these ads? Did it help women fight for equality or did it convince women to harm their bodies for their ideals? And if it did both, can we weigh an ethical issue using costs and benefits, or is any cost too much?

I don’t have any answers for these questions, but I do know that marketing has a profound influence on our lives, and the amount of power that corporations have on our decisions can have far-reaching consequences for society as well as individuals.

Image source: prmuseum.com

Uniqlo is a Japanese clothing retailer with an unconventional marketing strategy. Unlike other successful H&M, Topshop, and Zara, Uniqlo does not produce ‘fast fashion’ to be worn and disposed of each season. Instead, it produces basic clothing in limited styles, and keeps costs low by preordering huge volumes of clothing many months in advance to be produced in Chinese factories.

I find their approach unusual because instead of having a target segment and making clothing to suit the segment’s specific tastes like most clothing retailers, they’ve chosen to focus on providing generic clothing for virtually everyone. It goes against a lot of what we’ve learned in class, and yet the company has been enormously successful. I think, though, that in this case the company’s generality is part of what makes them so distinctive.

What makes Uniqlo different from similarly priced retailers is not only the simplicity of the clothing, but also the quality and innovative technology of its fabrics. Clothing made of Heattech fabric provides lightweight insulation, while tops in the Airism line have special fibres that keep you cool and dry in hot weather. The company’s mass production schedule of a few styles allow it reduce costs enough to be able to invest more on the quality of fabrics, so that it can sell items like pure cashmere sweaters and Japanese selvedge jeans, both typically high ticket items, at affordable prices. In this way, it’s created an image that straddles the line between quality and budget. Limited edition collections with designers like Jil Sander have added to its higher end appeal, which has left Uniqlo as a bit of a brand oddity in clothing retailers.  It’s an in-between that attracts both the quality seekers and the budget conscious.

Altogether, Uniqlo has created a distinctive brand identity by favouring functionality over fashion, and quality over individuality. Its positioning has so effective that the company now has more than 950 stores worldwide and has made Tadashi Yanai (the founder/CEO of Uniqlo) the richest man in Japan. Soon, the company may even take over Inditex as the biggest retailer in the world, showing that perhaps consumer tastes in clothing may be simpler than it seems.