Jocelyn Lam's Blog

Recently, a viral ad campaign was brought to my attention because of its buzz created on the internet. L’Oreal started a new promotional campaign for one of it’s smallest brands, Dermablend. In the video, it featured Rick Genest, also known as “Zombie Boy”, that recently became known for his tattoos from head to toe.

Dermablend is known for producing cosmetic products that are specialized in coverage, wearability and skincare. Using their promotional mix of advertising, Dermablend is using a pull strategy to directly pull in consumers towards their product. Dermablend uses this video to inform consumers that their products are available and about its amazing coverage ability. They do this by hiring Rick Genest to take part in this “Go Beyond the Cover” campaign, and have a team of professional make up artists on camera covering up his tattoos with Dermablend Pro products only and the results was amazingly natural and flawless.

The video idea is very creative and unique. It definitely caught my attention with the small shock factor it consisted, and with the inspiring underlying message it has.

How do you judge a book?
Go beyond the cover to reveal the inner beauty.

Reading Ellen Tsang‘s blog post got me thinking about the advertisements we are exposed to. Everyday we are bombarded with thousands of advertisements, that is why companies try to use unique and eye-catching techniques to stay in consumers’ minds. But many companies cross over the line and promote unhealthy concepts such as sexual content and illegal substances. These advertisements are exposed to many young audiences and are sending them wrong messages such as thinking it is morally correct to be under the influence of illegal substances. It is beneficial to be ‘out of the ordinary’ but is creating these negative images and messages to young audiences really worth it?

SISLEY is a fashion company that sells clothing to young adults. The image used in their advertisement promotes the act of using illegal substances. Marketers may think this image will attract consumers because of their shocking element, but in return, I believe this type of provocative advertising will just damage the company’s reputation and image.

Another unethical advertisement example would have to be this Burger King ad for their seven inch sandwich. This advertisement involves sexual innuendo. Burger King is a fast food company that has wide a range of audiences, which include young children. This ad promoting sexual behaviour to young children is not right, and to add on to that, I’m quite positive that this ad will offend a portion of the women population.

Companies should really be careful with their way of reaching out to consumers and be ‘over the top’ in a more ethical way.

TOMS is a very unique company. They would match every pair of shoes purchased with a pair of new shoes given to a child in need. This is a very good marketing strategy to have because it sets them apart from other companies that already exist. This leads me to say that I strongly agree with Angela Qin‘s Blog. TOMS Shoes creates a different image for their company by personally travelling to different countries to provide children in need the shoes they deserve.

Continuing from what Angela said, “TOMS is very smart to capitalize on consumers as marketers”, is absolutely one of the successful tactics that TOMS had. When TOMS first was made, I did not see myself ever purchasing one. But as time went by, people such as friends and family started wearing it. And because the trend is to have one, it changed how I felt about TOMS. After knowing that they are extremely comfortable AND purchasing them will help children in need, I was sold. It’s refreshing to see a company not only focus on making profit, but also take action in global issues.

I definitely went though the consumer decision process when I purchased my first pair of TOMS. I recognized the need when I saw it rise up in the fashion trend. I went ahead and searched for information and found out about their excellent One for One movement. I evaluated the alternatives by browsing other available shoes and then decided on purchasing TOMS. During postpurchase the I realized that TOMS’ performance absolutely exceeded my expectations, so I was delighted with the product and did not inhibit any postpurchase dissonance.

The following video is amazing. One word, happiness.

Social media is a great way to create communicating value and establish communication links between sellers and buyers. But, it is not always an easy task.

Rohit Bhargava’s Influencial Marketing Blog features an article on how companies can either hit a home run or strike out on their first hit with social media.
Everything You Need To Know About Twitter Strategy In Two Tweets

The article illustrates the point that social media is not all about engagement. It is good to have a conversation and relationship with customers but companies have to also remember to focus on adding value to the customer.

Bhargava contrasts between two companies, Carnival Cruise Lines and Cirque Du Soleil. The downfall of Carnival began with their streams of meaningless replies on Twitter and not actually offering any incentives to their Twitter followers. In contrast, Cirque Du Soleil’s Twitter includes many special offers and exclusive events that interests people around the world and also direct replies to customers. Their Twitter account is successful because it creates a sense of exclusivity and engagement with their followers.

I fully agree with the author. Many businesses rush into marketing with social media and often strike out because of not fully planning their strategy out. It ultimately just wastes time, effort, and money. It is crucial for companies to create a well thought out comprehensive strategy to effectively reach out to their customers.

A simple tweet can make a difference. For a successful twitter campaign, companies need to remember to make the customers want to search for more information beyond twitter.

What have I learned about myself in COMM299?

That is a good question. Even though the course is only 1 credit, I have gained a significant amount of knowledge from it. The professors was right, the take-aways from this course is something we can’t find in text books. I learned how to seek out my potential and excel in areas I want to. This course contributed in helping me decide what I want to do in business. Most importantly, I learned how the real world works and function with business.

In the resume/cover letter assignment, I learned how to create the ultimate “first impression” and present myself as the perfect potential candidate for the job position. Through the interview assignment, I found out that it takes a lot more preparation than I thought for an interview.

I gained a lot of valuable knowledge and experience from this course. One thing for sure, I still have a lot to learn, but this course has given me a good start in this 4-year journey at Sauder.

Throughout my childhood, my brothers been my role model. I’ve had looked up to my brother for everything since I was a little girl. When my brother went overseas for university, I couldn’t rely on my brother anymore. With him leaving, it made me realize that I have to work very hard on my own for what I want. Because I am the younger child, my parents provided me with everything and took care of all troubles. Long story short, I am very “sheltered” as a child.

Just before my brother left on the plane for university, he gave me a prep talk on how my lifes been very smooth and trouble-free. But when people get older, parents cannot fight off all the troubles anymore. My brother told me that I have to learn to fight for my own battles and work hard to strive for what I want.

After my brother’s prep talk, it gave me a wake up call. This was one of the greatest lesson I learned from someone. It made me realize that I need to take charge of my life and create my own milestones.

Zappos. It is an online shoe and clothing shop that was introduced in class.

The online shopping market is a fairly new market that was recently introduced to the selling industry. Even though it may be new, there are a numerous of different Websites that offer this service. Ebay and Amazon are amongst many of the examples that are similar to Zappos. Those websites are primary focused on online transactions, but there are other competitors in this market that provides services in both in-store and online, stretching the rivalry in this market even larger.

Online Shopping Websites like Zappos will have to provide a lot of security to be able to survive in the industry.Zappos has a stated goal to offer “best service in the industry.” Some security that Zappos provide include free shipping both ways, a 365-day return policy, and a call center that is always open.

With their loyalty business model and relationship marketing, it gained a lot of return-customers and word of mouth recommendations.
At this rate, I might even order myself some shoes from there. Maybe even do some early Christmas shopping 😉

Lets Shop! at : Zappos

One of the best marketing strategies widely used is Product Branding.

The way a specific product is branded and packaged is crucial to how that item is perceived and valued.
A strong example of this is the highly consumed soda pop.

Everyone must have went to the grocery store and picked out a specific soda before.
The question is, what brand of soda did you buy? What led you into buying this specific brand?
There is no doubt that the reputation and packaging of the soda had a large impact towards how you make your decision.

Reputation is important. It’s the decision between being a well-known and anticipated brand from a ‘B-Status’ substitute brand.
Personal preference and values may also affect the decision. The specific taste and satisfaction provided from the product will obviously affect the consumer. But if the taste and satisfaction are similar, evidently consumers will be more willing to purchase the more widely anticipated and visually appealing brand.

A few classes ago, a question was imposed to the class:
Which is the bigger motivator for you, power or money?

Many people may pick money because of the ‘greed’ part of their personality. Many people may pick power because of the ‘power hungry’ part of their personality.

If I’d have to pick, I will have a lot of trouble doing so. This is because these two motivators are actually coherent. When you have power, you can get money. When you have money, you can buy power.

OR  ?

Ethical businesses: Body Shop was one of the best examples of this. This really interested me, which lead me to do a little more research on this.

Body Shop has a motto of never testing on animals.  “Our products are not tested on animals, never have been and never will be.” They also stand by using ‘nature’ and ‘pure’ ingredients in their products.
By doing this, Body Shop differentiates themselves from other businesses in the market. This is a type of marketing skill that attracts a lot of consumers that want to somewhat be ethical in their purchases.
Body Shop created a Community Fair Trade that operate with the objective of “creating trade to help people in the Third World utilise their resources to meet their own needs”. With this, Body Shop is able to help people and allow them to obtain natural ingredients for their products.

Body Shop also join forces with many organizations such as UNICEF and ECPAT to create campaigns associated with HIV/AIDS awareness and violence prevention.

Looking into these facts, Body Shop is evidently a very ethical business that does not solely focus on making an increase in profit and revenue.

Body Shop