3, 2. 1, ACTION! Upon completion of the last part of the Marketing Plan Assignment, I feel like I’ve gained a variety of valuable knowledge and experience. Unlike other team projects I’ve encountered in the past, this one was not a typical run-of-the-mill in class presentation but a three part assignment ending with a creative 7 minute video creation. I enjoyed making a video to present our ideas instead of a presentation because it allowed me to be more creative, and it gave me the chance to work with my group to perfect our performance. Personally, my favourite part was experimenting with different ways capture the best film, and learning how to put together and edit footages to make an extraordinary final video.

Working with my group on making a video project was not easy, as none of us had any previous video making experience. Coming up with an entertaining idea to showcase our analysis and recommendations for our target company while staying within the 7 minute time limit was difficult. Many ideas were composed and scrapped. Even after we settled on an idea, the filming of it turned out to be infeasible. Filming was a challenge in itself as our source of natural lighting has become limited due to seasonal changes. Needless to say, there were many challenges our group had to overcome, but in the end with all our efforts combined, we pulled through.

I hope my peers and professor will enjoy our video project. I’m very excited to watch some of theirs and give them feedback. I believe peer feedback is a great way to see what I am doing that is working and what is not, allowing me to learn from my mistakes. It definitely also encouraged us to work harder as a team.

All in all, I really enjoyed this unique Marketing Plan Assignment. The experience of working with my team to create, film and stitch together a video was very special. From this I took away new found leadership, people, and technological skills. Aaaannnndd CUT! 😀

The title of Toby Kwan’s blog post “It’s Black Friday Friday Friday” is very suiting to the current issue I find is most prominent in the Black Friday promotion commotion. Black Friday is no longer just a one day event, rather, in attempt to cash in on Black Friday sales, stores are now extending Black Friday to three, four, or even five days long. While Toby argues that Black Friday is “not so much an event as a product in itself,” promoting the right message, to the right people, through the right media, I believe that with the recent Black Friday trends, the right message to the right people part of the promotional mix has become ambiguous.

Black Friday commercials invaded local radio stations a few days before the event. Listening to various stores advertise their three, four, or five day Black Friday sales as I drove home from marketing class, it dawned on me that while Black Friday has always been a successful promotional campaign, many store’s advertisements are becoming noise because of the lack of uniformity in its design. True, extending the sales is profitable and beneficial in helping consumers who are adverse to big crowds and long line ups, but when one store has a three day sale, while another has a four day sale, and another only has a one day sale… it just becomes a jumble of confusion in consumers’ minds.

Thus I propose the idea of a unified one day Black Friday event, with the option for stores to extend it to a three day event. Either one or three. Not only does this decrease the confusion, but it also cuts down the noise in the communication channels so that consumers will be better able to decode what sales each store actually has to offer. The question will be simple: Is this store offering sales on Black Friday, or Black Friday Friday Friday?

Visit Toby Kwan’s Blog at https://blogs.ubc.ca/tobykwan/

Each generation has different ways they absorb information to make decisions in their lives. Seniors nowadays aren’t the most internet savvy, however more and more are learning. Emma Livingston’s blog, “Do Seniors Process Information Differently?” mentions seniors “are less likely to make decisions based on factual analysis and research first,” and are more likely to respond to emotional factors. Thus, she proposes firms should do some research and appeal to the senior market using “enthusiastic lead users to act as advocates.”

A good example I found to add on to Emma’s point was the “Airport” commercial for Oceanic Cable using Betty White and the cast of “Hot in Cleveland.” Oceanic Cable is using Betty White to appeal to the senior market. When seniors see this commercial, they might recognize Betty White, a famous senior comedian, thus creating a link between the Oceanic Cable brand and the senior market. This is because when seniors see someone they know supporting a brand, they will automatically be more inclined to choose this brand amongst all competitors due to the emotional tie that is created by the advocate. Seniors will feel more trust towards this product and be more likely to purchase it.

Seniors are a tough market to reach because they often do not follow current trends. Commercials are a great way to reach the senior market because they tend to have more time to sit down and watch TV compared to younger people nowadays whose lives depend on high speed internet and wifi connection.

Click picture to view video

Negative associations are often found with energy drinks. Common words used to describe energy drinks include “unhealthy,” “unnatural,” “sugary,” and even “toxic.” As if energy drinks did not already have a bad rep, a dead mouse was found at the bottom of one man’s Monster Energy Drink can in Washington. He has filed a lawsuit and has the lab work to prove that the mouse was indeed there in the can before he had opened the drink. Monster refuses to believe him and has “declined a comment on the lawsuit”. While Monster may escape this lawsuit, can it escape the damage of the bad publicity this news story has done on its consumer trust, loyalty and reputation?

No. It is likely that current consumers and potential buyers who see this story will be permanently disturbed. Personally, after viewing this newscast I am not only permanently turned off by the Monster brand, but by all energy drinks. Perhaps even all canned drinks, and that is just from viewing a video. I cannot imagine what it is like for the man who actually felt the debris from the dead mouth in his mouth.

It is devastating for Monster to have dead mice associated with its brand. Wherever this dead mouse came from, Monster Energy Drink will need to step up in its quality control, as well as making a guarantee to its consumers an incident like this will not happen again. In the marketing mix, its product is the problem. It may be a good idea for Monster to start packaging its products in visible cans or bottles. That way, it can slowly market its product to be trusted by the now disbelieving consumers.

To watch the news video:

If You Still Drink Monster, Get Ready To Never Want Another

http://www.realfarmacy.com/if-you-still-drink-monster-get-ready-to-never-want-another/

Sustainability is a growing social trend and it seems companies are trying harder than ever to give its brand a green makeover by creating biodegradable, renewable, and organic products. Consumers are feeling the ethical need to make a switch, however they are still unwilling to pay more and take on risks for the new environmentally friendly products. Are ethical claims from those companies really going to change the consumers mind?

Seventh Generation biodegradable dish soap

Would you choose to use a average dish soap or a natural biodegradable dish soap?

According to a new study from Concordia University’s John Molson School of Business, there is a theory that better sales are linked to sustainable products consumers have a physical connection with. Another study by Onur Bodur also supports the theory that ethical claims promote sales when consumers have physical contact with the product. It sounds like a strange enough theory; however, imagine walking into a store to buy printer ink and dish soap. Between the choices of normal printer ink, biodegradable printer ink, normal dish soap and biodegradable dish soap, you might choose to save money on the normal printer and spend on the biodegradable dish soap. It makes sense that consumers would care less about choosing the biodegradable printer ink and care more about choosing the sustainable dish soap. The difference is something called the positive contagion effect – consumers do not automatically think about the ink used in a printer because ink isn’t something people physically interact with on a daily basis, whereas dish soap touches the consumers’ hands two or three times a day allowing customers to quicker perceive the increased benefits of the sustainable product.

Consumers are likely skeptical of the new ingredients, the functionality, and the danger of losing money when faced with a new product. Not all firms can increase its product’s perceived value by going green, but for companies selling the types of products that have tactile consumer involvement, it may be worth the money to invest in going green.

References:

(1) http://phys.org/news/2013-09-physical-contact-ethical-consumer.html