Jordon's Next Level Blog

Okay look, companies and businesses have strategically placed their branded products in movies for decades already. These firms understand the value in placing their products in widely viewed and popular movies as it creates an instant connection to their viewers. Recent examples include: Tron (2010) and Ducati, Despicable Me (2010) and NBC, Transfromers (2009) and Chevy etc.

Nice Bike you got there.

However, that being said, the process of integrating products into movies often requires a bidding process and negotiations with the movie studio and firm. Firms often pay upwards of millions of dollars to have their product featured (depending on the type of product, ie. Aston Martin in James Bond).

This is where something new has happened… I recently stumbled upon the trailer for a upcoming movie… based entirely on brand / product placement. This movie, titled “POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold” is funded and paid for, completely by product placement. Check out the trailer:

The movie is a eye-opening documentary, Morgan Spurlock (who also directed Super Size Me) explores how firms will pay bigg $$$$ just to be featured in films. Obviously, Spurlock adds humour to the movie and turns it into an entertaining learning experience.

Bringing it to the next level

The movie title is already a blatant example of product branding; POM wonderful, went through an extensive bidding process to be featured in the title. I find it very interesting, to see the ‘behind the scenes’ process in movie negotiations and the extent that firms go to ensure proper placement.

I’m quite excited about this film, after learning the theory behind advertising and product placement, this movie really shows you the reality of the situation. This movie is very innovative and creative, and the premise behind the film is quite different. This one of a kind movie pokes fun at product placement, all while revealing the truth in corporate marketing strategies.

The internet itself has become entity, seemingly with its own mind and trends. The ever changing face of the internet followed alongside the technological development over the years, but the primordial concept of viral videos and images still dominate the web. I was exploring other marketing blogs when I stumbled upon “The Marketing Blog” and found an interesting article regarding viral videos. We all see these viral videos on Youtube, and we all know of the potential for marketers/companies wishing to promote their products. But recently, a new form of viral ‘material’ has emerged on the internet: ‘Internet memes’.
You may be asking what a ‘meme’ is, the definition on the web, ‘an idea that propagates thru the web’, just doesn’t capture the essence of it. Images like this one, may seem random and confusing to the inexperienced web surfer, but is an image that has been propagated through hundreds of blogs and websites and gained ‘viral’ status.
There are hundreds on images similar to this one, often making no sense at all, but are very common and viewed by millions.
Connecting internet memes back to marketing… these popular images/trends have immense potential for companies. With such high views/popularity, products and companies can gain immediate popularity. However, it must be noted that predicting memes or gaining attention for products is a very challenging task. It is almost impossible to predict trends or effectively integrate marketing in the internet memes.
In addition, there is the risk of having a ‘negative’ meme rather than a positive one and may be detrimental to the company.

That being said, I do believe that internet memes may be the direction of interent marketers, developing effective techniques to create viral advertisements has incredible potential for companies.

It may seem like I’ve been hatin’ on fast food, but trust me, I love fast food. Don’t get me wrong. Anyways, I came across something quite intriguing, the concept of ‘food stylists’. These agents of marketing, work to make food look perfect on advertisments, particularly fast food. Take a look at this video from Youtube.  

The 90's summarized visually.

Wow, look at that intro, I haven’t seen a colour scheme like that since the 90’s. Regardless of that fact, it is evident that food stylists were the rage back then. These ‘artists’ would spend ridiculous amounts of time designing a fake burger… One that looked unbelievably delicious, yet disgusting if you actually took a bit out of it. Personally, i think this shows how marketing can be an art form, the ability to make something look amazing despite the reality of what the product actually will look like (refer to previous blog posts). This is a perfect example of the P, “promotion”, and it is showing how far companies will go to make their product look good. The most common way to target consumers is visually and it is very important to set a good image.

Is this ethical? It may be hidden to consumers, but I actually think it isn’t unethical or breaking too many rules. Think about it, would you want them to put a pictures of their actual normal burger they serve you? I think most people would be turned off at the immediate sight, and would never have the opportunity to taste the delicious greasy burger. Although that being said, I do think that companies that do engage in this food styling should attempt to match their products shown.

Another aspect of this issue may be brought up is technology. Notice how that video was

"Yes, this is my job. Got a problem?"

set in the 90’s? Well, now a days, I’m confident that marketers no longer require a ‘food stylist’, rather a computer with photoshop. No need to even whip out the spatula! Marketing has gone a long way… although honestly I think it would be a hilarious/awesome job being a food stylist.

Marketing has evolved dramatically over time.. What once started out as simple print ads or people standing on streets waving signs has turned into taking advantage of social networking websites and the interent to get messages across.
As we all know, the internet has brought upon significant change in the way firms advertise their products, mainly in the form of spam, e-mails, side banners, and pop-ups. But what is really game changing is the way firms are marketing. A prominent example in today’s market would be the classic chip brand, Doritos.
This brand has undergone significant change, their logo has developed into a ‘hip and modern’ image.

If you look further into their website and promotions, you see little of the classical Doritos that many of us grew up with (with the exception of the taste).
The marketers at Doritos have come up with ‘Snackstrong’ Check it out here. It is quite stunning, the promotional techniques employed here, no longer is Doritos just a snack.. It is portrayed as something much more epic. On the website it is actually somewhat difficult to find anything about the specific product, rather you find a vast amount of promotional videos. By watching the videos on the website, it becomes apparent they are specifically targeting the university/young adult segments. Their use of humour in their ads has been attracting attention, their videos gaining instant popularity on Youtube with over 51 million views in total.

Doritos even went further in terms of marketing. They have recently changed their packing, and extended their product lines. They have expanded their product categories to include Tacos, Cheeseburgers, and Jalapeno.   The product displayed to the below has taken on a bold and clean look. Perhaps the lack of information and details makes it appealing to curious consumers.

Overall I think Doritos is revolutionary in their Marketing, they are changing the face of snacks and showing how it could be fun and entertaining for the masses.

I was thoroughly amused by my classmate’s blog post regarding Warning labels on products. Deborah’s blog post mentioned how ridiculous some of these labels could be, stating the most obvious things to warn their consumers.
Evidentially, they use it for legal reasons, to prevent people from hurting themselves, but how obvious IS too obvious? The example of a chain saw warning, may seem amusingly obvious to some, but in reality there are probably people who have injured themselves from it (due to their own stupidity) and seek to earn financial compensation for it by suing the company.
This brings me to the plethora of ridiculous law suits that people have argued for, and in many cases won.  The term ‘frivolous lawsuits’ are labeled to claims that have no real legal merit, and are similar to the case that Deborah brought up about McDonald’s hot coffee.

Other examples include:
In 1999, a 27 year old man wanted to carry out his dream of swimming with whales, so he decided one day to climb into the tank of Tillikum, a resident Killer Whale at Sea World. As you may have expected, the man was attacked and unfortunately succumbed to his injuries. His parents then proceeded to sue Sea world for their apparent lack of warnings.

“For a while in the 1990s, Anheuser-Busch, the producers of Budweiser, ran a series of ads in which two beautiful women come to life in front of two truck drivers. A Michigan man bought a case of the beer, drank it, and failed to see two women materialize. Cue the lawsuit. He sued the company for false advertising, asking for a sum in excess of $10,000. Thankfully the court dismissed the suit and the man remained penniless and dateless.”

These 2 examples are ridiculous in nature, but Companies must realize the possibility of such frivolous lawsuits. What would be the best way to prevent these? Perhaps obvious warning labels, or I’d say, a superior team of lawyers.

As my business education continues the networking sessions, meet & greets, conferences, and events have been increasing steadily. The need for a convenient ‘billboard’ to advertise myself is becoming dire. Going back to the ‘Marketing YOU’ blog post earlier, being remembered by potential employers is basic to getting any job. It doesn’t matter how amazing you are, what accomplishments you have, or what impression you have made, if they don’t have contact details and vital information on you. However, I’ve been thinking of exactly what makes a good business card?
Would it be the FONT?       The colours?          The simplicity?       The aesthetics?     The Texture?      The information?

What would be a good combination of all of these… I’ve seen many business cards in my life time, some more intriguing and creative than others. But that being said, where should the line be drawn to maintain a professional image?
The Sauder School of Business offers a business card service to their students; they can have whatever text they want, but when it comes to looks, it all looks the same as any other student. I think that being able to differentiate yourself even in such a basic way as business cards would be advantageous. When a a recruiter reaches in their pockets, and pulls out 50 identical looking business cards, it becomes hard to attach faces to these names, where as when you have one that stand out it becomes easier.

I think that creativity, appealing colours, combined with concise and informative text would be a winning formula. You would want high quality cards that match your own ‘brand’ image. It’s all about how effective this ‘billboard’ will be. What image will the person holding it get? However, be sure not to over due it, as said previously, maintain professionalism and far too outlandish cards will create a negative image. Simplicity is key too.

Anyways,

I think it’s time to hit up photoshop and get crackin’ on customized, specially designed, Jordon Card.

If you want to create some Sauder ones: click here

One thing that angers me, is false or misleading advertising. Although extreme cases may be rare, milder forms are present in everyday products. It seems to me that the most prominent examples lie in the food industry.
Have you been to the frozen food isle in a grocery store and picked up a frozen meal, and savoured at the delicious image that was in front of you and Only to bring it back home in excitement and discover quite the opposite?  Or gone to a fast food joint for  delicious meal as shown on TV, but was greeted with a greasy mess? All this happens too often…

Left side: KFC's depiction Right side: reality

I understand that this plagues cheap and low quality food products, but it seems unethical to present it in whatever unrealistic form on advertisements. Consumers are highly influenced by the image of food, and it companies take full advantage of it.

Another form of misleading advertisement could be not just in the unrealistic portrayal of the product, but actually false information. This seems more rare, but we have all experienced it. A recent example would be the amazing ‘free new biscuits’

Look at the size of that fine print. Well done McDonalds.

McDonalds was offering… with the massive amount of publicity and promotion, everyone knew about it. But what few people actually knew was, the very limited supply, and locations that they offered it at. For example at UBC, their McDonalds was not ‘equipped to handle these simple biscuits’, and didn’t offer them to a hungry mob of students. Sure, they mentioned, “only at select locations” on their posters, but then again, who can read the fine print the size of a hair? Additionally, at that location, they didn’t bother mentioning it until you were at the counter in the middle of ordering.

I strongly believe that marketing should be conducted in an ethical manner, such misleading or false advertising really puts a negative image on the company.

Ever since we were young, we’ve been bombarded with advertisements, commercials, and promotions. Some effective, and some not. This has led me to the question, what makes an advertisement appealing? This is key factor in the marketing mix and I’d thought that exploring it would be interesting.
If you think back to you last week, what were your most memorable moments? If you were with friends, it would most likely be funny incidents. If not, I guess the internet could have provided you with some funny videos etc.. Anyways, for me, the most memorable moments of my friends and first year at UBC were the FUNNY moments.. from people doing ridiculous things in class, to hilarious events that happen.
I strongly believe that humour is a GREAT way to promote a product, however, it must be done in an effective manner. Making it so funny that people wont take it seriously is a concern and should be in moderation. As said before, if done correctly, people will generally REMEMBER the promotion and spread the word of the humor. People (especially older people)  love sending links and videos to their friends and family – my parents for some reason tend to send me videos they find ‘funny‘ ALL the time.
However, why won’t all products do this? Well, I see it that only specific products can be promoted in this way. For example, inserting humour in a life insurance product may be difficult or ineffective.

I’ve taken the liberty to search the internet for various ads that I’ve found amusing and funny. Take a look, and enjoy them as I did!
(Going along with the trends of effective promotional techniques, another BIG one is sex. The bottom line is sex sells, however, I don’t think me posting ‘good’ examples of it would be verrry appropriate. Maybe next time, or try another website/blog)

What does marketing yourself mean? What opportunities may come from it? How do you market yourself?
These questions have become more relevant with the onset of Marketing Classes at UBC. It has occurred to me, that the idea of marketing yourself, in the sense similar to a product would, is very important. It seems like the concepts of SWOTs, and even the marketing mix may be applied to you personal life. The ability to ‘sustain a competitive advantage’ in school and against other students is imperative to your future, in terms of what opportunities and jobs may come along. I haven’t fully understood the concepts of ‘marketing’ yourself, but I intend on developing these as time progresses. For now, I believe that adding “VALUE” to your life is a good start. Recently, I’ve been thinking of ‘internationally marketing myself’, in the form of exchange. I plan to broaden my views on life and use the new experiences I’ve gained from the trip to seek opportunities and make myself stand out. The section on my transcript or resumé that says: Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien, Austria or Stockholm School of Economics, I’d definitely say would increase your market value. It’s difficult to sort through hundreds of applicants when they are all fairly consistant, so it will help to make yourself different  (in a good sense of course). As numerous student reports say: “Exchange helps you understand different cultures, customs, and traditions. It will add to your perspective of the world, change your life!”
Well, I think that those all fit well into marketing yourself -I’m down for that, count me in.  Overall, I do believe that if I do end up travelling to Europe to study, it will become a significant marketing tool, and will assist me in the future.

This however, is only one of the millions of ways of distinguishing yourself. I sure hope to learn more about how to market yourself, as a business student as the Marketing course progresses. It will be interesting to develop, apply, and see the results!
Anyways, till next time.

" Oh snap! You've studied there?!? That's pretty sick " - Future Employer