Joanna Yu's Blog

Last week, I was very intrigued by the interesting ads shown by Tamar so then I began to search for more interesting ads.  Then it crossed my mind that sometimes, if the marketers are not careful and do not pay attention to everything, they may experience some fail advertising.  For example, KFC’s fire hydrant outdoor advertising did not work as well as they thought.

As you can see in the picture, they put their company logo and their chicken bucket in hopes to promote their new “fiery” chicken wings.  Although it was intended to be placed on a “fire” hydrant, they forgot to consider the fact that fire hydrants are a popular place for dogs to mark their territory.  Although seemingly effective, this sample of outdoor advertising was not the greatest idea and it really shows that marketing requires careful and well though out plans.

IKEA has also experienced some outdoor advertising fail.

As you can see in the picture, IKEA tried to be technologically savvy and displayed a screen however, they failed to foresee the situation where they may experience Internet disconnection and thus displaying an embarrassing moment for their marketing team.

Although outdoor advertising can be really fun, I think marketers should take notice and be very careful about outdoor advertising as it is usually the type of marketing that catches the consumers’ eyes and interests.

Similar to my last post about Spiffs from Sport Chek, I decided to elaborate on what was discussed in class about the sales promotion process.  The process we follow at Sport Chek is very similar to the one taught in class.  Our process follows the acronym GAME.  Where the “G” is the first step and it stands for greet and approach.  This is where we walk towards our customers and greet them with a friendly smile and “hello”.  Then we try to approach some of them by asking open ended questions such as “what kind of sports do you like to play?”  Once we have a nice converstaion started, we try to follow through to our next step which is the “A” standing for ask and assess.  At this stage, we try to ask probing questions relating to the kind of sport they do and try to analyze their needs.  Once we find out what kind of equipment, clothing etc they need, we start the 3rd stage of our process which is the “M” standing for make a recommendation.  At this stage, we think about the products we have in our store and recommend the products to our customer which best suits their needs.  Simultaneously, we tell them of how the products will help them with their sport and how to use the products properly.  If the customer likes what is shown to them, you then show them to a fitting room or a fitting area where they can try on the products to find proper sizes and colour.  Finally, once they find a suitable product, we continue recommending other necessities relating to their needs.  We then enter the “E” stage (end the sale) so when they are finally ready to purchase, we walk them up to a cashier where they will stand in line to pay.

As mentioned in a previous post, I am currently a sales associate at Sport Chek and after listening to Tamar in class today, I found many similarities between what I learned in class and what I experienced at Sport Chek.  For example, our store does offer spiffs for employees and they do motivate employees to work hard to sell certain items.  As for me, I am currently attempting to sell Rebok’s new line extension featuring their newest Zigtech technology.  Basically for any clothing apparel like t-shirts, they used grinded minerals from the ground to mix with the polyester fibres which is then weaved into t-shirts, jackets, shorts etc.   With the minerals embedded within the apparel, the user should gain 7% more oxygen when they are exercising.  So basically with the Zigtech line, us as employees will receive one point for every one Zigtech article we sell to a customer.  In the end of the contest, the amount of points we earned will determine the type of award we can get.  For this contest we get…
$15 for itunes – 3 points
$50 for cinema theatres – 5 points
$100 for Best Buy – 10 points
$250 for Visa – 20 points
As you can see, the more points we earn, the better the prizes which gives employees like me even more motivation to sell.  However, it is unfortunate that at my store, there are only about 10 zigtech apparel to sell and with such a low variety, it makes it more difficult.  However, spiffs do work as I usually recommend the Zigtech items to customer first in hopes of selling more to earn more points.

I recently came across Crocs’ blog during my search for company blogs.  They had introduced a new brand extension featuring the 7-Ounce-Bounce.  Crocs has basically introduced a new shoe in which they have promoted that the main benefit was how light-weight the shoe was.  The 7-Ounce-Bounce has 3 products (the Hover Slip-on, Hover Lace-up, and Bowen) as of now and are each targeted to different people depending on their needs and preferences.  The Hover Slip-on would be targeted to people who seek comfort and are usually on the go who prefer convenient shoes to wear.  The Hover Lace-up seems to target a younger population possibly generation Y who wants shoes that are durable and in-style for outdoor uses.  The Bowen as seen from the video seems to be targeted towards men who like to skateboard or but are not the running or jogging athletic type.  However, the video truly depicts how light-weight the shoe is especially with all the jumps in slow motion, it makes us viewers feel the lightness.

I really enjoyed reading and thinking about Anne Cheng’s blog as I thought it related to what we learned in class last week.  She thought that changing a company logo is very risky but then she came to realize later that it is quite ingenious to change the logo once or twice every now and then.  I agree with her thinking.  I think it is risky to change logos because some people fear change and when they see something they aren’t too familiar with such as a new logo, some consumers might be psychologically affected in thinking that the products might have changed as well.  However, in another perspective, changing a company logo can be thought of as revolutionizing.  For example, the Pepsi logo has changed several times for the past 120 years as shown below.  When Pepsi first began, their logo was simply just words with a fancy font.  As time past, people started utilizing symbols and more colours to differentiate themselves.  The Pepsi logo has evolved to a circle with blue, white and red wavy lines.  I think initially, all logos should start with something that has their brand name so that people can start recognizing the name itself which is shown in the Pepsi logo and the Starbucks logo in Anne’s blog.  When people start recognizing a logo by just colours or shape and style, the company can begin to deviate and simplify their design so people can remember their logo easier.  Furthermore, as shown through the Pepsi logos, they started utilizing effective photoshop skills to enhance the design much like revolutionizing with technology and the current market.  I think a change in logo design is a very useful tool in promotional advertising as it tells the consumers that the company like Starbucks and Pepsi are continually trying to improve!

This past week has definitely been quite stressful and tiring.  I don’t think I could have survived without coffee to boost up my day.  I don’t usually drink coffee but I realized the past week, I had 3 already.  I think the main reason for my recent coffee cravings was due to the Tim Horton’s Roll up to Win promotion.

This promotion offers more than 47 million prizes from free donuts and coffee (they actually give you another cup that has the roll up promotion!) to 3D TV packages and Toyota cars (Matrix)!   What I really like about this promotion is the number of prizes.  I have a friend who won 5 donuts or coffee from 11 cups that she bought which really motivates me to buy a coffee and test my chances of winning.  I know I am not alone thinking this way because I noticed the line up for a Tim Horton’s coffee has definitely lengthened.  I think with this promotion, they have successfully gained in the current market share stealing some of Starbuck’s customers.  However, I have noticed something interesting with this promotion.  McDonalds have actually tried to counter this every time by offering free coffee.  This is actually really smart because McDonalds, being such a large company, can afford to give free coffee and this benefits them because it prevents Tim Hortons from stealing their customers who could potentially buy an extra burger or fries with their free coffee.  I think it is more difficult for Starbucks to to counter this promotion because their coffee is already in very good quality that customers pay a premium.  If they start giving free coffee, it wouldn’t be wise as I learned in my marketing class that high prices can indicate better quality in which Starbucks definitely provides and strives to maintain.

Hey , for those fellow classmates who reads my blog, here is a video that might interest you.  It is a family showing their dedication and love to the iphone app Angry Birds (which we discussed in class) enjoy!

PS: This is not a marketing blog post!

Recently, from class, we have talked about cereal and branding which reminded me of Kellogs.  I have been eating Kellogs cereal since I was young and I could say I am loyal to the brand.  I as a consumer, have tried many Kellogs products and I remain loyal to them because I have developed a trust for the brand.  I believe Kellogs has a good brand name because they make a large variety of products for different types of consumers.  For example, they used to target young children as they use animated characters on their cereal products as seen in the picture below.

However, from the rise of health conscious people, Kellogs has responded to this by introducing a new product line known as Specail K where they specifically promote the minimal fat content and the healthy corn flakes + additional healthy fruits and nuts add ins.  They have also developed a strong brand through their special featured products.  They have developed strong partnerships with other well known companies that allow them to feature special coupons printed on the inside of the box itself that people can use.  For example, I realized recently, I always remain loyal to Kellogs because I find their cereals a good deal as the the money I save on the coupons tend to be equal to the amount of money I actaully spend on their cereal.  They have been doing this for many years now as I remember recieving free VCDs as a prize in my cereal box.  Kellogs has a very strong branding because they keep their promises to gain consumer trust.  I can firmly say that I have never been disappointed from any Kellogs product purchases as they are always fresh and always contains a prize or coupon!

Kellogs uses effective segmentation target marketing and shown from the picture above, their Special K cereal is targeted towards healthy conscious people and thus the coupons offered are for healthy foods as well such as salads and energy drinks.

After reading Raissa Cheu’s post on McDonalds, I want to add on to why I also feel that McDonalds has such a large market share in comparison to all their direct competitors.

This image was taken from http://ganislanders.com/sponsors/rink-board-sponsors/

Besides excellent customer service, they also excel in their marketing strategies as can be seen through their products and promotion. As for products, McDonalds utilizes STP strategically.  McDonalds segments their consumers geographically and effectively as different types of burgers are served in different countries to better match the cuisine and food demands properly. For example, the McDonalds in Japan serves tuna burgers, Greece serves their burgers in pitas, Hong Kong began selling their burgers on rice patties, India sells mainly chicken and lamb but no beef, some places in Canada serves lobster burgers and Germany even serves beer as a beverage.  There are many more examples as McDonalds has expanded to many countries of the world.

This greatly benefits McDonalds because they keep up with their competitors at each country based on consumer demands.  Furthermore, because McDonalds is everywhere in the world, as people travel for vacations, they tend to visit McDonalds for quick meals because they it is a company they know and trust compared to other fast food restaurants that may be popular in certain countries such as Wendy’s in Canada.

Besides products, McDonald’s promotions are very unique and creative.  For example, a few months ago, they launched their annual monopoly promotional game where you buy certain meals to collect monopoly states and win prizes with a complete set.  Like many others, I really enjoyed playing monopoly and was influenced to buy their food to participate in the game.  Furthermore, they developed another promotional event this year where we can use the money from monopoly to buy fries.  This is so unique, fun and creative that completely differentiates McDonalds from their competitors.  These are just some few examples of how McDonalds gains their competitive advantage.

As some of you may know, I currently work as a clothing sales associate for Sportchek and during my shifts, I noticed that we have so many ads featuring Sydney Crosby.

This is a good choice as Sydney Crosby is now famous due to the fact that he shot the winning goal for the final Olympic mens hockey game (Canada vs USA).  For many consumers, Sydney Crosby is an aspirational figure in their reference groups which can influence their purchase behaviours.  After some investigation, I discovered that Crosby is also featured in Sportchek commercials.

In this commercial, they are targeting the psychological aspects of the consumers.  This commercial affects the cognitive attitudes of the consumers as they “joke around” with the famous Crosby “winning” goal.  I believe this is a good marketing technique because the “winning goal” affected many people nation-wide as they all experienced the exhilarating, breathe-taking goal that placed a significant mark in the Canadian Olympic history.  It is a good marketing technique to build on your own brand so in this case, Sportchek made a sequel to the first commercial as shown below.

In the second commercial, Sportchek targeted the cognitive, affective and behavioural attitudes of the consumer.  The cognitive and affective aspect was similar to the first commercial in that they were again “joking” with how good Sydney Crosby was at hockey.  The behavioural aspect is that they promoted a contest online for consumers to win a trip to meet Sydney Crosby.  This will raise awareness to many people that they have an online store; this will also attract more customers.  From both commercials, Sportchek truly highlighted the fact that they have built a strong culture within the company and hired knowledgeable staff, such as Crosby himself, for better customer service.