Month: January 2012

Different companies market themselves in different ways.

In today’s lecture, I learnt two ways of marketing which I think are extreme cases.

The “crazy” baby carrot advertisement is really impressive. Healthy food has never been marketed in this way. Traditional ads for healthy food always use light music as their background music. They always take place in a lab or home kitchen, and they always have a person in doctor uniform talking professionally about nutrition facts. These ads are boring to watch, and they don’t even attract half of the attention the companies want. BABY CARROTS had this brand new idea of marketing health food ( the video we watched in class); however, there are more. After the lecture, I searched on Youtube and found another BABY CARROTS ad. If the one we watched in class is more for teens, then the one I found  has its target set right on adults (males, mostly, I guess).

So here, watch it.

New Baby Carrots Eat ‘Em Like Junk Food commercial

This ad has been viewed 943,933 times and only 8 of them disliked it.

Because this idea is so creative and new to consumers, BABY CARROTS really get itself stand out. And besides the ads, BABY CARROTS also has its unique junk food packaging which I think it’s perfect for people who think they too cool for healthy food like baby carrots.

Another example we saw in class today was about Wikipedia. Wikipedia has gone dark, in a protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act. However, although its original intention was not for the purpose of marketing, many websites had caught this opportunity and got themselves promoted. As the saying goes, ” if you ever want something, let it go first”. Many people don’t really care about what Wikipedia was protesting at, but the fear of not being able to use Wikipedia will make Wikipedia more important in their minds.

I personally like BABY CARROTS’s idea of marketing itself better, but undeniable, Wikipedia moved a smart step which kills two birds with one stone. So, who is the winner? I guess they both are.

Hi, everyone!

My name is Ke Yi Li, and you can call me Vivian. So, a little about myself: I am originally from China. I have been in Vancouver for 5 years. I love everything about Vancouver, including the rain. (Unlike most of people, I get hyper when it’s raining and I don’t know why.) I went to Semiahmoo Secondary School in White Rock. By the way, the views are great there, and you should definitely go there when you have time. FYI, summer will be a better choice than winter, and you should listen to the advise given by someone who even likes rain and winter.

Why am I taking this course? Um…I am taking this course not only because it’s mandatory but also because I have a great interest in marketing. As I said in the post of the discussion question, I like marketing even though half of the time i regret buying new products I saw from advertisements or recommended by the sales person. As Prof. Burke said in the lecture, marketing involves all the psychology and attributes needed to get a product or service to the market and into the customers’ hands, which I think are very interesting and useful to know. I haven’t had a chance to work in marketing field but have a lot of experience as a consumer, so I can probably use what I will learn from this course to avoid those “marketing traps”. And although marketing is not all about advertising, I enjoy watching advertisements on TV and seeing all those amazing ideas people came up for marketing their products. Which ad is my favourite? All apple’s ads! They are simple but managed to be so attractive and make the products even more breathtaking. There is another reason of why I am taking this course. I am a transfer student, and I didn’t get a chance to take Comm 101. So I missed the introduction to marketing, and I don’t want to lose the opportunity of digging into marketing.

So…

Hope I can get to know most of you in person this term, and hope this will be a fun term!