Month: March 2011

To answer Mandy Chow‘s question, “are vending machines suitable for cosmetic products”, I would definitely say YES!

For most of the girls, make up has become a daily essential, and girls shop for makeups on impulse. Picture a situation where you realize you didn’t bring your mascara or lipstick to the destination of your trip, and now you are about to go on a very important date, what would you do? Probably panic in the hotel room?  But what if, you have a cosmetic vending machine down the hall of your hotel room, wouldn’t that be just fantastic?

The question might be what is the incentive for building such machines? I would say, because cosmetics industry is in its maturity stage, where competition is fierce, and every brand is trying to come up with new line extension to survive this battle.

So in order to get more market share and extend the product life cycle, companies should consider using vending machines to sell its products. This approach increases customer base, could potentially increase the frequency of use, and most importantly, this is an innovative way of stimulating demand.

Wandering around the supermarket, couldn’t help to notice that junk food aisle has some new members – Doritos A and Doritos B! I was really amazed by how the packaging color changed from red to complete monotone. To be honest, I was quite disappointed at first. But curiosity hit me, and I actually googled about change.

It is a newly launched campaign that aimed at the junk food lovers to vote for a new flavour of the Doritos, and also encourage voters to submit a creative idea of how to destroy the other unpopular option. The most creative idea will be shot into an ad, and also winner will receive $2,500 and 1% of the sales revenue.

This campaign has allowed customer input to create its new product,  and also increased the perceived value of every purchase of Doritos, because you think you are a part of something big and meaningful, and you might get a chance to win that grand prize!!

The industry is almost at its maturity stage with fierce competition, and constant launch of new product lines. And now, Doritos has made its bench mark of being the leader of this industry, since it was able to understand how to increase its product depth with customers input, and clearly deliver the message of how they care about its valued customers’ opinion!

I don’t know if you are getting tired of receiving flyers in Sauder? But I AM! Probably budget is a big concern for clubs and events, however, delivering ineffective and boring flyers is wasting money as well!

So I found a marketing campaign Unicef was doing, although it is 2 years old, but I still want to review  it, simply because it made me become super aware of the fact that marketing isn’t about spending big bucks to get your brand on the most popular TV channel.

So basically, Unicef had a very unique strategy in making people become more aware of landmines. What they did was to design self-adhesive stickers that has a top coloured as the floor, so people would step on it, and have the stickers sticked on the bottom of their shoes. On the other side of the stickers is a picture of a landline and a message from Unicef.

This is a very creative way of letting people experience how easy is it to step on a landline. So, I guess this is a big step up from traditionally flyers that have text and image. Like what we saw in class today, the NIKE wall has provided the opportunity for potential buys to experience. And this, Unicef has done a great job in creating a cheap and yet effective experiential marketing campaign!

Cool. Another ipad.

For some of you, it might just be an ipad. But for some of you, that means a whole new level innovation and advance in technology.

For most of you, YOU WANT IT, BUT it depends on if the bang worth the buck. So does it?

Currently, the ipad 2 is priced at $499 compared to an refurbished ipad 1 is now priced at $399. From value point of view, the ipad 2 does offer 2x faster processor, 9x higher resolution, and a 1/3 less in weight, but do all these values add up to the price? I guess not. The ipad itself offers no more function than an iphone, and still not able to substitute laptop, why would someone spend almost $500 for such a luxury toy?

From pricing point of view, I agree with Jessica,  Apple should lower its price when its still on the peak. At this moment, Apple still have chance for gaining more market share, but when the Apple fetish is over, even lowering price won’t help.

Currently, Apple is using odd pricing strategy with value orientation through communicating its product value to customers on website and through commercials. Unfortunately, when rational consumers are making a purchase, they would eventually compare values between products. Apple will eventually lose on this one if the price persists high in comparison.