just cause

Click and go to my friend Edward Hsu’s blog post “Effective Theme Songs in Movies”

I grew up enjoying and playing music. Although I haven’t gone anywhere with it, my love of music never faded, and I’m always deeply moved when I hear a great soundtrack from a movie that is just so epic and fitting. Time is a funny thing. No matter how great a movie is, we may forget its plot and most of its lines as years go by, but sometimes the music sticks with us. Perhaps I’ve already forgotten the storyline of the Lion King, but I will always remember the time being tucked into a seemingly gigantic seat in a theater at the age of four, looking up and listening to the magnificent rendition of “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” by Elton John in awe.

With all that being said, I think it’s important for a movie to have a magnificent theme song that is remembered by many if the movie is to go down in history as one of the greats. No wonder film makers spend big bucks in hiring world class composers to construct songs.

I figured I should end my last marketing blog of the term with a couple of movie soundtracks I absolutely love. Laters!

Somewhere in Time

Hold On

and lastly… One of my all-time favorite Chinese songs, a soundtrack to a hit TV series in China, “I Wanna Tell You”

The newly launched Windows Phone 7 by Microsoft is sure to face some extremely tough competitions. It does not make a walk in the park to compete in the smart phone market with creations like iPhone, BlackBerry, HTC smartphones, etc. You might wonder what can Microsoft pull this time to gain an edge and capture some of the market. Well, I have to say Microsoft did not disappoint. Their campaign slogan is sure to intrigue: it’s time for a phone to save us from our phones.

I think this is a very interesting idea because while people are hooked in the sea of iPhone apps or the non-stop bbms, the Windows Phone is “designed to get you in and out and back to life”. This could be a charm for many people who recognize that there are more important things in life than clicking away on their phones.

Back to the video I posted in the beginning. The ad exaggerates on the fact that people are spending way too much time with their phones when they really should be doing something else. Such mockery might just get people thinking – am I failing school because I play too much Angry Birds…? Am I slowly going insane because I check my bbm every 10 seconds…? The thing about marketing is, if you get them thinking, they’ll buy.

First of all I’m deeply sorry for missing one week of post and remaining completely oblivious until now. I hope this won’t be too big of a deal.

Click and check out my friend Johnathon’s entry about the whole LeBron James drama that has been going on since July, when he made the decision, on National TV, of course,  of leaving his old team Cleveland Cavaliers to join force with two superstars Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh.

Click on this too and read an open letter by Dan Gilbert, owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, which downright insulted LeBron James with harsh and pejorative language that stirred up immense public emotions and controversy. Millions of fans around the globe picked their sides and engaged in nonstop debates on LeBron James’ decision.

One man remained perfectly calm and invisible during this whole upheaval. The man is the NBA Commissioner, David Stern.

So what has David Stern been doing this whole time? My guess is that he has been visiting physicians to figure out a way to close his mouth from grinning after the TV rating of the NBA skyrocketed. The NBA is competing with the NFL, MLB and so on. And this whole LeBron James drama has been nothing but good for business. People all of a sudden started to care so much, just because he is LeBron James. But what did he exactly do? Leave and sign with another team like half of the players did in the off season?

Just watch when LeBron James returns to Cleveland on Dec 2 in the rain of popcorn and water bottles. There will only be more drama for everyone – exactly what Mr. Stern wants, isn’t it?

Remembrance Day, otherwise known as “Veterans Day” in the States, has just passed. I think the existence of Remembrance Day it’s a very great tradition and shows a lot about the nation. I can tell you there is no such day as Remembrance Day in the country where I come from.  We have the Independence Day of China sitting on the first day of October, when all that people ever do is celebrate, slowing forgetting about the past, the unspeakable, and the hundreds of millions that perished in the wars.

With that being said, sorry about the divergence, I think it would be almost unethical for companies to promote their products on a day such as Remembrance Day. However, Coca-Cola has found a nice way around that.

http://www.coca-colaconversations.com/my_weblog/2010/11/veterans-day-2010.html

The link above directs you to an entry in the blog of Coca-Cola, in which a dated painting work can be found. In the painting, possibly dating back to WWII, men from several branches of service in the army are shown playing cards. On table are also, you guessed it, Coca-Cola bottles.

I would assume this painting has touched the hearts of many many nostalgic people around the country. It’s nice to take a walk down the memory lane and savor the good’ol guns blazing, trumpet sounding, and nurse chasing days. And of course, there was Coca-Cola, every single day of the life – might as well go out and buy one now right?

Good job Coca-Cola!

I’m not entirely sure if there is such phrase as “eye candying”, but the meaning of which is quite obvious. Consumers love good-looking things. Simple as that, and nobody knows better than luxury good producers.

The following link directs you to a custom car wheel franchise that has only been around for so long – how are they doing? They are in the multi-millions in sales. Surprised? Don’t be.

http://www.adv1wheels.com/adv1wheels/gallery.php

It’s amazing how many people are willing to pay eight thousand dollars for four identical custom wheels. To be quite honest, if I had a lot of money to myself, then I’d be totally amongst those people. The truth is, when people have a few extra bucks to go around with, they start to turn to those goods and services with ridiculous price tags on them. It’s almost like they have to. Let the eye candies be seen and admired, lots of them.

By the way, for some of the ladies that don’t understand what cars mean to guys. Let me give you an example. The following picture you are about to see means roughly the same to a regular male as seeing a gorgeous lady bending over by a fridge to get the beer on the bottom shelf. No wonder the digits on the price tags seem ignorable now.

I just finished my weekly grocery shopping at the Yaohan Centre tonight, and I happen to find its marketing strategy quite interesting.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Yaohan Centre (which is interesting because I could almost conclude that you are not of Asian-descent),  here is an overview of the centre straight from Wikipedia:

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Yaohan Centre (八佰伴中心) is a shopping centre in the Golden Village district of Richmond, British Columbia. It caters mainly to Asian ethnic groups, mainly those of Chinese and Japanese descent. It is located on Richmond’s busy Golden District shopping district, and is next door to another Asian-centric mall, Aberdeen Centre.

Yaohan Centre was owned by the Japanese company Yaohan until the company’s demise in the late 1990s. The President Group, a Taiwanese company which also owns the President Plaza mall next to Yaohan, took over the management of the mall ever since.

It is anchored by Osaka Supermarket, which belongs to the group of T & T Supermarket chain stores.

—

As mentioned above, Yaohan caters mainly to Asian ethnic groups, and if I’m to apply my terrible marketing knowledge to this fact, I would say Yaohan uses a concentration strategy and targets the demographic segment of Asians. It creates a completely Eastern atmosphere with virtually every tag, label, and product written in both Chinese and English. All of its employees are fluent in Cantonese and some Mandarin Chinese. And you will find nothing but typical Eastern food such as sushi, mooncakes, and dumplings.

I hope you are following me up to this point because I’m really gonna push it now by doing a simple SWOT analysis on the Yaohan situation.

It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out the strengths of the Yaohan Centre, as it captures the massive Asian population which resides in Richmond and all over BC. On the other hand, concentrating on the Asian community has its drawbacks because Yaohan will never be as widely recognized as the more inclusive supermarkets such as Costco and Safeway. This also limits its ability to capture opportunities of really expanding its influence.

— But the possible threat of the Yaohan franchise going down the drains?? I see none, because, oh well, Richmond will never run out of Asians.

Two weeks ago I talked about some companies’ intentions of making eccentric commercials in hopes of standing out and being noticed. That’s fair enough, and many commercials have delivered. However, some have failed miserably for being simply too controversial, disturbing, or downright outrageous.

I believe many of you have seen and remembered this Quizno’s commercial that was aired for a very short period of time before it was banned for being, I guess, gross. The commercial was full of outrageous sexual references from an oven that could talk and Scott, a Quizno’s employee.

The failure of this commercial tells us that there is a fine line in doing just about everything. While it’s probably worthwhile being innovative and adventurous, companies still need to think twice before they decide to shoot some absurd and whimsical commercials, because amongst the people watching, there are always the kids and the easily-offended ones.

It’s very common for corporations to feature celebrities in their commercials in order to get more attention. The following commercial is made by one of the largest online poker sites, Full Tilt Poker. A young star whom is looked up to and admired by millions, Tom Dwan, is featured in the video.

It’s not entirely difficult for a firm to come up with an idea of using celebrities as their advocates. The hard part is what to do with these celebrities and what messages need to get through. In this 30-second commercial, Full Tilk Poker does a good job of narrating Dwan’s personal journey from imitating other poker heroes to becoming a player of his own kind. I imagine this would really make many poker players connect to this commercial because they can see themselves in different stages of Dwan’s progress. This commercial really distinguishes itself from many other commercials where the celebrities in them don’t really have anything to do with the products advertised.

Commercials that people get a good laugh from are usually remembered, and a lot of companies have taken that into account when advertising for their products. Also, many buyers tend to compare substitute products when buying them, and one advantage of funny commercials is that buyers can’t really compare the product specs with others because they are not emphasized in the commercials.

With that being said, I will then post a youtube video titled “the world’s funniest commercial”, which I would not disagree. I apologize in advance should the obscene language in the video offend anybody. So here we go.

I hope you’re laughing by now because when I first saw that I almost fell off my chair laughing. You could make the argument that I’m easily amused, but the point I’m trying to make is that many funny commercials make an impact because the true intentions of the commercials are not revealed at first. We have to keep watching until the very end, which creates a little suspense and separates funny commercials from many serious and bland advertisements.

As you can see, the title above is blatantly ripped off from the name of the commercial I’m about to show you.  It is a well-known TV commercial entitled “Let Your Game Speak” made by NIKE to promote its Air Jordan Brand dedicated to the greatest basketball player that has ever lived, Michael Jordan. 

The commercial consists of numerous adolescent basketball players of different ethnicity and gender that are imitating some of Michael Jordan’s most remembered moves. The settings of the scenes vary from community centers, outdoor streetball courts, secondary school gymnasiums, etc. A slow but steady piano theme is played throughout the ad, with slowly augmenting orchestra music in the background.

NIKE is trying to make the point that the game of basketball is being played and appreciated around the globe, which happens to be the case nowadays. Also, as the most recognized and iconic figure in sports history, Michael Jordan does not need to speak while advertising his shoes. The most interesting thing I find about this commercial is that there is zero dialogue. The commercial reaches its climax when a teenage player hits a game winner and does the famous “Jordan Shrug” to his dejected defender. As he runs back on defence, Michael Jordan is shown in the stands, smiling, yet still not uttering a word. The sentence “Let your game speak” is then displayed, followed by the Air Jordan logo, concluding a simply epic TV commercial.

As successful as NIKE is, the corporation does not need to talk about its products while doing advertisements. Its hundreds of millions of advocates (like myself) do the talking. So just let your buyers sit back, watch, ponder, feel the goosebumps, and admire — pretty sweet marketing strategy, isn’t it?