The dream of becoming a Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) champion was a goal that only the elite male fighters of the world could dream of.

This all changed on February 23^rd as the first female UFC Bantamweight (135lb) Champion Ronda Rousey (on the left) defended her belt against her challenger, Liz Carmouche (on the right).

The established method of marketing was modified to showcase the new female division’s main event. Instead of the usual montages of workouts interlaced by trash talk,

the UFC built a prime-time preview show which showcased the more emotional side of fighting.

The preview showcased Rousey’s sterling yet horribly unfair career. Even though she was the first American woman ever to win a bronze medal in the Olympics for Judo, she was relegated to being a waitress after the end of her decorated career. Liz Carmouche had had to hide her true self from her fellow marines due to the fact that she served during a time when the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy was in place.

The preview made the male viewer respect the plight of women in men’s world at the same time giving female viewers new role models to look up to. The editing of the video and the inspiring personal stories allowed female fighters to be considered on the same level of toughness and skill levels as the men while still being able to maintain their femininity.

The UFC’s marketing techniques essentially took an existing product line (the fighting events) and added depth by introducing women into the fight cards and garnered a new demographic of women viewers while not alienating their existing demographic of males aged from 18-35. Had the promotions been handled inappropriately, many male viewers may have considered the first female championship bout as a “cat fight” instead of the battle that it was.

The fight was a massive success from a marketing perspective as many major outlets (ESPN magazine, CNN, etc) who had never covered UFC events tuned in to watch the first and surely not the last women’s MMA fight.

A few years ago, the South Korean grocery outlet Homeplus was the second largest grocery retailer in Korea. Trailing behind E-Mart, the largest grocery retailer in Korea, Homeplus could not close the gap between itself and its chief rival through conventional means chiefly due to the fact that E-Mart’s grocery outlets outnumbered Homeplus stores 7:5.

So, Homeplus decided to launch a new advertising campaign that focuses on two specific components of the marketing mix: place and promotion.

Homeplus initiated an unconventional advertising campaign at subway stations, posting pictures of store items on the walls and labeling each item with QR codes. Customers could literally get all of their grocery shopping done by using their smartphones to scan the QR codes of items they wanted and these grocery store items would be delivered to the homes of customers.

Homeplus was able to target new substantial locations with this promotion. Korean subway stations are jam packed with busy people who often tend to be both professionals or school students who do not have the time to go to a grocery store to shop. This advertising campaign targeted these individuals and increased the brand’s online presence to the status of the leader in online grocery shopping.

By creating this innovative promotion, Homeplus didn’t even have to invest in physical stores to create more locations. Costs were kept to a minimum.

The use QR codes also provides the company with a source of data. The shopping data of each customer is linked to his or her account on Homeplus’ website. This allows another avenue of place in the marketing mix as Homeplus also utilizes data mining to find out purchasing patterns of certain customers and uses the information to alert consumers on saving opportunities.

Homeplus’ innovative marketing tactics have really efficiently utilized many aspects of marketing, especially places and promotion.