Category: Uncategorized

As mentioned by Diou in her blog, many of us are aware of TOMS and their effort in providing underprivileged children with shoes.  More recently, however, our marketing class came across BOBS, a line of shoes which appears to be a blatant knock-off of TOMS. BOBS was created by Sketchers, and similar to TOMS, they also donate a pair of shoes for every pair sold.  When I first heard about this during class, I felt that it was quite shady of Sketchers to outright copy TOMS, and Simon Mainwaring agrees with this view in his blog, but my personal opinions have changed after taking a look at their website.

Take a look at this video.

BOBS isn’t hiding the fact that they are using another company’s idea.  In fact, they mention TOMS in the video above, and they also state on their website, “[BOBS] isn’t a new idea, but it’s a great idea and we are happy to be part of a charity movement that has the potential to impact so many.”  Yes, BOBS stole an idea from TOMS, but is it such a bad thing that more children in the world now have an opportunity to receive a pair of shoes?  The answer is obviously no.  Let’s take a step back and stop thinking about the business aspect of the two companies and start thinking about the cause.  We shouldn’t hate on a company who’s also trying to do their part to help alleviate a global issue.  BOBS may indeed be a disingenuous marketing campaign, but at least more children will have shoes on their feet.

It is difficult to deny the power of social media.  With a few tweets, likes, and shares, a message can go from obscurity to prominence in a matter of days.  As illustrated in Yvonne’s blog , the KONY 2012 video is a perfect example of the wonders of social media.

Social media, however, is not limited to spreading messages of activism.  Businesses and entrepreneurs have recognized the potential of social media in building valuable relationships with customers and informing them on future product launches and events. Furthermore, the low cost of using Facebook and Twitter makes this marketing tool that much better.

The benefits of sites like Facebook and Twitter can certainly be astounding, but they are completely useless without subscribers or followers.  For major companies, acquiring followers can a be a simple task as they already have an established brand with a loyal customer base, but how can small businesses gain more followers?  Well, they can buy them.  As explained by Michael Fleischner, buying Twitter followers is the “latest craze”.  Fleischner further explains that purchasing followers will build awareness for the company, and perhaps these new followers will become customers in the future.  Furthermore, with more followers, the business gains credibility as people will see that the business has a large following, and thus they may choose to follow the company as well.

Many websites such as http://buytwitterfollowers.com/ offer this service, but I am a rather sceptical about the idea of buying “real” Twitter followers.  How do these websites find these individuals?  Overall, though, I must say that the idea of buying followers is rather interesting.  I guess paying people to care about your company is better than having no one care about your company.

The Super Bowl was great.  The game had an exciting conclusion, and the half-time show wasn’t bad, but what I really wanted to see were some dancing M&M’s.

Last night’s game had the biggest TV audience ever with an estimated 111.3 million people tuning in to watch the Giants beat the Patriots.  With numbers that great, it is no wonder that Super Bowl Sunday is recognized by Americans as the largest advertising day of the year, as mentioned by Zane in one of his earlier blog posts.  It is the day when companies display big budget commercials in hopes of positioning themselves in the minds of consumers.  It is the epitome of mass marketing.

What frustrates me, though, is the fact that the majority of these amazing commercials such as the M&M’s commercial above is usually not shown in Canada.  The Globe and Mail suggests that the primary reason for this is that football just does not resonate with Canadians like it does with Americans, thus it may not be worthwhile for companies to make the extra investment, but I disagree with this notion.  Last night, the only two companies which made an effort to do something special for the Super Bowl were Hyundai and Budweiser, and it is no coincidence that those are the only two commercials that I remember.

(Take a look at Michelle’s blog on the Budweiser commercial.)

Indeed, it is true that commercial-lovers like me can watch all the Super Bowl commercials online after the game, but it’s just not the same.  Perhaps next year, on Super Bowl Sunday, I’ll go down to America to watch some commercials, and maybe I’ll watch some football too. 😀

It has been published that a city dweller is exposed to up to 5,000 advertisements a day, but of all those ads, how many do you remember?  How many of those ads actually enabled a company to lasso new customers and take their cash?

Marketers work hard to create advertisements.  I don’t doubt that, but sometimes it just seems as though companies are randomly throwing advertisements at individuals and hoping that they will make a hit.  On several occasions, in the midst of my search for humour on Youtube, I am presented with an advertisement for Olay facial wash.  Now, I cannot say this with absolute certainty, but I do not believe that I am part of their target market.  Situations such as this exemplify unsuccessful advertising, but of course, there is hope in other companies.

For example, on Christmas day I saw this commercial…

… and it was awesome.

No, there were no attractive women or hilarious jokes, but Weightwatchers did a very good job.

Tim Redpath, in his blog, said that “effective communication is all about timeliness… You need to get the right message to the right target audience at the right time,” and Weightwatchers did all of this.

This commercial was shown during the NBA season opener on Christmas day.  It featured Charles Barkley, NBA Hall-of-Famer, who directs a message to chubby sports fans and says, “If the Round Mound can slim down, so can you.”  Barkley’s message is even more effective as it is presented during a time when many overweight individuals deem weight loss as a new year’s resolution.

Weightwatchers was successful in directing the right message to the right target audience at the right time.

The marketing team definitely deserves a round of applause.

After the time which I spent in Comm 299, I have not learned anything which I deem to be life changing, but I have without a doubt learned some practical things which can help me in the future.  I believe that the most important thing which I have learned about myself is that I have not participated in enough school clubs and activities.  It is becoming clearer that the experiences which I will gain throughout my time in university will be valuable.  I need to not only participate in the school clubs but also take on a position.  These volunteer opportunities will demonstrate to my future employers that I have not only book knowledge but also tangible skills which I will acquire during the position.  In the future, I must be more social and participate in more activities.

The greatest lesson that I learned from someone else is one which I acquired from Professor Gateman and Robert Herjavec and that is to have modest arrogance.  At the end of the term, Professor Gateman gave the class a speech in attempts to boost our confidence for the exam, and I suppose he was also trying to inspire us.  He told us that we are all just as smart, if not smarter, than those around us.  We cannot underestimate ourselves and our intelligence.  There is a necessity to consistently believe that you can do anything.  Now, this statement comes with a warning.  Indeed, we are to believe that we are intelligent, but there must be a sense of modesty.  To be intelligent does not imply that one has to point at others saying that they are smarter than them, because at the end of the day, it does not matter if you are the smartest person in the world if no one likes you.  It is difficult to succeed alone.

Major sporting events such as the Olympics and FIFA see ambush marketing as evil as it allows a company to reap the rewards from such events without sponsoring them.  Furthermore, it dissuades companies from supporting future events as they will see little incentive in sponsorship if they can attain the same effects for free.

In my opinion, ambush marketing is genius.  It is a cost effective way of promoting a business to a large number of people.  A former Nike marketer said “If companies aren’t aggressive in promoting their sponsorships, then they should be ambushed. Sponsors should dominate all of the public relations, advertising, promotions… If you are sloppy, then maybe an ambush will force you to become a better marketer…”

I agree with this statement.  If a company is willing to spend millions of dollars to become an official sponsor of an event, they should do all that they can in order to ensure that no one walks into their territory.

Companies such as Nike should be admired for their success in ambush marketing.  To be recognized as the official sponsor of the FIFA World Cup by many people despite Adidas being the true sponsor is a great feat.

Our whole approach is just figure out how to make employees happy, figure out how to make customers happy, figure out how to make vendors happy. – Tony Shieh

Companies hire employees to do specific tasks, but employees are not work horses.  They will not work harder for their employers if they are constantly being whipped.  Businesses are becoming more aware of this truth as the topics of organizational culture and human resource management have become more popular.  There is now a greater understanding of what is needed in order for one’s employees to work harder.  Money is no longer the sole motivator for employees.  They need other things such as personal growth.

Zappos understands this concept very well as they use more than just money to encourage productivity.  The company makes work fun as demonstrated by the video of the party which Zappos held for employees and vendors.  Zappos is very aware that happy employees will lead to happy customers which will lead to happy vendors.

Happiness is indeed a key to success.

Many times, people walk into a store in search for a specific product, but nothing on the shelves is exactly what they wanted, so they settle for a product which is similar to what they originally desired. The solution to this problem is customization where customers tell the producers precisely what they want so that it can be made especially for them.  Customization intrigues many businesses as customized products can be sold at a premium price, but to make customized items on a large scale is very costly.  Production lines have to be very complicated in order for mass customization to be feasible, and economies of scale will not be reached due to the demand of many different factors of production.  Mass customization, though, is not impossible.  Companies such as Dell and NIKEiD have been quite successful in implementing such a strategy.

In the future, I predict the more companies will become successful in mass customization.  There will be a day when consumers no longer walk into a store to search for a product.  They will be able to tell producers what they want, and the products will come to them.

There used to be a time where the majority of investors only cared about money.  To them, a profitable business was a good business, but in today’s globally conscious world, money is not the only thing that matters.  Investors want to see that a business in not only profitable, be also caring towards the world around them.

A great example of a company which is for-profit but also has a social purpose is Tom’s Shoes.  In 2006, when Blake Mycoskie, traveller and entrepreneur, visited Argentina, he realized that many children had no shoes which resulted in them being very susceptible to various diseases.  Being aware of this fact, Mycoskie founded Tom’s Shoes which had a goal of giving away a pair of shoes away for every pair of shoes which the company sold.  This was labelled as the One for One Movement.

I admire Blake and his success at being a social entrepreneur.  In today’s society where the rich are becoming richer and the poor are becoming poorer, those who are living in prosperity should give back to those who are less fortunate.  It is surely the right thing to do.