Category: Comm 296

Angus writes another blog that really got me thinking. In his blog, he asks: “Does market research results changed based on changes in society or does society change based off the decisions of market research?” Having just learned from Audrey’s blog: Apple does no market research, I think that differ from traditional way of keeping a business running, what Apple does is very mind blown. If companies’ ultimate goal is to resonate with societal values, does not matter the answer to Angus’s question, market research is essential to a company.

What is market research? Market research is any organized effort to gather information about markets or customers. It is a very important component of business strategies. (Wikipedia) So, is market research really that important to a business? At least Apple does not think so. According to Audrey’s blog: Apple DOES NOT do any market research. However, even Jobs said, “we (as Apple) do no market research”, personally, I still think they do market research, but really in a different way. When Bill Gates talked about Jobs, he said, “ he (Jobs) really knows what the market wants…” Although before the launch of iphones, there are other brands market and sell their smart phones in the market, the market really built up after the launch of iphone. Same as the tablet market, ipads brought the market to a whole new level. Therefore, it is fair to say, instead going into the existing market, really, Steve Jobs, or Apple created the market. If the market is created by him or this brand, why bother doing market research? Or if he created the market, he had enough research done already. However, to other companies, it is different.

I agree with Audrey that “an innovator like Apple is very rare”, but Apple didn’t succeed without market research. It had its research done in a different way. In conclusion, does not matter which way a company use to do its market research, market research is essential to a business.

As I was reading through other classmates’ blog postings, I came across Angus Chak and Chloe Chen’s blogs. Both of them talked about sustainable marketing. I also would like to add few of my points to “sustainable marketing”.

As I was searching on the internet, I found “the internet’s leading site for sustainable marketing”. After reading the blog, I have found the answer to a question I have had: What is different about Sustainable Marketing? It isn’t just about selling green products to the LOHAS (lifestyle of health and sustainability) market segment, which encompasses 63 million people. Or the $540 billion Cultural Creatives market. Sustainable Marketing gives traditional marketing methods and discipline to entrepreneurs in the green marketing sector, teaches corporate social responsibility and green marketing to existing well-established companies, and also going beyond branding, evolving marketing, understanding our customers better, their values, emotions, and buying behavior, and their hopes for making a sustainable, restorative relationship with their families, their communities, and the earth.

As the sound of “go green” gets louder, now days, not only for-profit firms but also many not-for-profits firms use sustainable marketing strategies. Water bottles use less plastic while universities turn from paper exams to online exams. So who gets benefit from adopting the sustainable marketing strategy? Everybody does, including the firms and the consumers. Firms can get high reputations as well as practise their social responsibilities while consumers save money and get a better and green planet. Many firms compete over their sustainable strategies (like said in Angus’s blog, Coca cola and Pepsi), but really, no matter who the winner is, sustainable marketing will lead us to a better marketing world, as Chloe puts in her blog: ” ‘go green’ is the ultimate social trend, employing sustainable marketing will not only benefit customers, but also the companies as companies’ visions resonate with customers’ and societal values.

Article Link: How Important Is Brand Perception?

Yesterday, I got a chance to read an article written by Lina Ko on Canadian Marketing Blog site. It is an article that talks about the importance of brand perception; however, it makes me to think beyond that, so I did some research and learned some interesting facts.

“Brand Perception” is identified as the second course of development of the Brand equity of a brand. (Brand equity is a concept first brought up by David. A. Aaker, a consultant and author on the field of marketing, particularly in the area of brand strategy.) This shows that not all well-known brands are good brands regarding their products/services (ex. McDonald’s), but people are more willing to learn more about those brands that have good brand perception regardless of their products/services (ex. Apple). So, to answer the question “how important is brand perception”, I think “Brand Perception” is very important to a brand, and in fact, it’s essential.

Now back to the article. In the first paragraph, Lina quoted her realtor’s words “I’m sure you haven’t heard of the name (Tim Hortons), but apparently it’s like a Dunkin Donuts…” What her realtor said shows many Canadians don’t have enough confidence in our own brands. When reading the second paragraph, I saw a list of Canada’s successful global brands, and to be honest, I only recognized one of them, and thought the other ones to be American brands. I called few of my friends, and the result I got shows that ironically, Canadians don’t recognize own brands, but have confidence in foreign (especially American) brands. However, conversely, Americans have confidence in their brands. They are too confident and sometimes even mistakenly think some famous foreign brands are also American, as Lina wrote in the third paragraph “Lululemon is everywhere in Florida, but I’m not sure whether any American consumer know that’s Canadian.

How do brands like Apple got so famous? “That’s because Apple has focused not only on product innovation, but primarily on being ahead of consumers and anticipating their needs.” Comparing to Apple, Lululemon is well known but not famous, and I think it’s because that it’s not enough to just fulfill yoga lovers’ needs as Lululemon marketed itself mainly on yoga clothing and products. Although it has and is developing many other types of products, these products are not well marketed. Lululemon is still known as, especially to someone who is not from Vancouver, a yoga place. Also, Lululemon, from what I have heard, is focusing on creating this local community atmosphere, which I think it’s better to be built after increasing its brand perception.

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!