And that concludes my final blog post of the year.
Just going out with a bang… (hehe.. get it?)
I was reading the marketing blog of the Canadian Marketing Association (the aptly named Canadian Marketing Blog), and found a blog post that was rather short (for that blog) but very stimulating.
http://www.canadianmarketingblog.com/archives/2010/12/canadians_continute_to_buy_mor_1.html
Some of the information stated in the blog was not very surprising at all; ie. Canadians are steadily purchasing more and more things online. However, I WAS very surprised to find out that the most commonly purchased good was not software, music, nor apparel – three products that we commonly associate with online selling – but in fact travel.
There was other interesting information here – online revenue increased from 7.9 billion in 2005 to 15 billion in 2009. It’s not unexpected that online revenue has increased, but I never thought it would increase by so much in just four years.
So what are we supposed to take from this? Well, for one, online ticket-selling companies are making lots of money. Invest in them. Secondly, and probably more importantly is that online retailing is rapidly becoming more and more prominent, and that, if this current trend continues, online sales revenue will one day eclipse regular in-person sales revenue – and in a time not too long from now. The Internet is the future of sales and marketing.
Companies nowadays are going to have to shift more and more of their resources into online marketing in order to keep up with their clientele. In-person sales promotion will become less and less important, and may one day even become obsolete. From a financial standpoint, this would be very beneficial, as companies would be able to reduce wages and salaries costs. New up-and-coming companies would be smart to focus on e-commerce – and that’s precisely what many are doing.
There’s also some very scary implications for society in general to draw from this. If human jobs continue to be replaced by computers, there will be number of jobs available in the market will continually decrease. In the most extreme case, humans will become obsolete – not saying that this will necessarily happen, of course. The world in general is becoming more and more reliant on computers (insert sci-fi movie reference), and that’s definitely not a good thing.
In the sports industry, every product with the logo of a team is an extremely profitable product. Sweaters, t-shirts, jerseys, water bottles… fans will buy just about any product if it’s affiliated in any way with the team that they cheer for. Naturally, the NBA attempts to develop as many products as it can, since each product is almost guaranteed positive profits. Enter the NBA’s latest concoction:
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Tada! Meet the NBA Team Logo Toaster!
I found a very interesting blog post about targeted advertisement on Vitor Cid’s blog, which just happens to have the same name as mine (great minds think alike?).
He does a great job of explaining what targeted advertisement is, how it is done, and its benefits. He then mentions how one of the easiest places to conduct targeted advertising is on the Internet, where it is extremely prevalent. I found this part of the post particularly intriguing, because if we accept that computers and technology is what will dominate our future, internet advertising will be then be the dominant form of advertising in the future.
The advertising that we see on the Internet today is a brief glimpse into the future – a preview, if you will – of advertising, marketing in general, and even our culture itself.
Interested? Excited? Scared? How about undecided, because we really never know exactly what the future will bring.
I found Nabeel’s blog post very interesting, because it shows us how long marketing has been around, and how developed it was even 15 years ago.
Growing up in the 21st century, I think I’ve been exposed to marketing so much that it’s become something I’ve taken for granted and never really noticed or thought about, kind of like the air that we breathe everyday.
Having now taken (half of) COMM 296, I think I would definitely recommend the course to others, because it’s a real eye-opener, making us realize that marketing is the base of not only business, but also our very culture itself. It’s everywhere, from the food we eat, to the clothing we buy, and the television we watch. Also, by learning marketing, we learn how to market ourselves, when we are looking for a job.
Finally finished with my midterms, which means it’s time for my next blog post!
If you’ve ever walked around UBC, you must have noticed this flashy promotional posters all across campus. The question is, what purpose do they serve? Sure, they look nice, and they portray the school as a prestigious, first-class university, but why are they only found WITHIN the school campus itself? Wouldn’t it make more sense to advertise abroad, in an effort to attract top students?
The main purpose of these posters is the marketing element known as customer relationship management. Their primary objective is to reduce post-purchase dissonance, to convince students that they made the right decision in coming to UBC. This is very important to the school because discontent students may leave the school, and because by building a positive relationship with students, they may choose to return after completing their degree to pursue a second degree – perhaps a Master’s or Doctorate, where the tuition fees, and the school’s profit, are much higher.
The posters also serve several other purposes. They are very motivational, and instill a sense of school pride and identity in students. This again builds student – or customer, if you will – loyalty, allowing for potential future transactions such as returning for the aforementioned second degree, or simply donating to the Alma Mater Society. The posters also have some intangible benefits, such as a more cohesive university environment.
Finally, these posters DO have some effect on those that are not currently students at UBC. There are many museums, shows and sports events at the UBC, and the UBC has many visitors, and sometimes even television coverage. These visitors, or viewers on television, may be swayed by these posters, and either one day attend UBC themselves, or recommend the school to others.
It should also be considered that because all universities will proclaim themselves to be the greatest, building positive word-of-mouth about the school may perhaps be even MORE effective than advertising directly to potential students.
Just some food for thought. From here.
It’s midterm exam week, and like everybody else, I’m busy studying (or pretending to be). So… I’m just gonna post a comic about marketing…
I found this comic pretty funny, and it illustrates how marketing is not only useful for promoting products, but also for promoting ourselves. I think everybody taking marketing will find it very helpful when they are looking for a job. Marketing is awesome!*
*Good karma for the midterm? Please?
And… here’s another YouTube video!
This is a commercial that you’ve probably seen on TV, for Apple’s latest product, the iPad.
In my last post, I mentioned how Apple has (smartly) decided to position itself towards the less technologically savvy segment, and I think this commercial is a perfect example of how exactly Apple does so.
This commercial is extremely simple. There are no numbers, there are no sentences; heck, there are no voices. The 30-second clip is simply a slideshow of iPad functions that look really cool, and single-word descriptions of these functions. And it works brilliantly.
By using simple words, it gives the viewer the impression that the iPad is very easy to use. Many “technologically challenged” people will avoid products described using hi-tech mumbo-jumbo because they don’t understand technological jargon; they simply want a product that does what they want it to do. By keeping everything simple, the commercial does an excellent job of positioning the iPad to those that are less technologically savvy.
The creators of this commercial also did a very good job of selecting which functions to display. They differ greatly from each other, and the plan of this is to not only show the versatility of the iPad, but also to position the iPad to as many potential consumers as possible.
With that, I am officially finished with my (biased) discussion of Apple. Reading this, you may think I am an avid Apple consumer – why else would i spend three blog posts talking about it? However, I actually don’t own a single Apple product. I find their products overrated, overhyped, and most importantly, overpriced. Sure, their marketing department does a great job of making it look cool, but of the many functions showcased in the above commercial, how many of them cannot be performed using a computer? (Hint: None of them!)
This is a continuation of my thoughts (my rant, if you will) about Apple, as started in my previous blog post.
In my mind, Apple’s marketing department has done a tremendous job of segmenting the market. They divided the market into those that are technologically savvy, and those that are not. Then, they realized that although we live in an age where technology is changing by the minute, the segment of people who are actually technologically savvy is actually much smaller than the segment of those who are not.
After recognizing the potential segments, it then becomes a no-brainer when it comes to which segment to target. Not only is the non-technologically-savvy segment much larger, but they are also much less picky when it comes to specifications, and use other factors to determine the perceived value of the product in question, such as the opinions of their peers, ease-of-use, or attractiveness.
Positioning their products then becomes less about the sheer innovativeness (probably not a word.. haha) of their technology, and more of advertising their products, and convincing these “technologically challenged” people that their product is very useful and worth having. This makes it much it easier for their Research & Development department, because their product does not need to be the most advanced, technologically speaking (in fact, there are currently many cutting-edge products with technology far superior to that of Apple’s that nobody has heard of, due to unsuccessful marketing).
In my next blog post, I will show an example of an Apple advertisement, and discuss how it manages to position itself to its target segment.
As promised, this post will have no YouTube video, for better or for worse. Today I will be talking about Apple Inc., a company that I’m sure all of you have heard about, the inventor and manufacturer of the popular iPod and MacBook products.
We all know the story: Apple was a struggling corporation, a computer company that had existed since nearly the very beginning, but appeared to have entirely lost the battle against Microsoft. This all changed, however, when Steve Jobs, one of Apple’s founders, returned to the company after a 13 year hiatus, and led it back to being a major player in the computer industry.
But how exactly did he do it? How did Steve Jobs manage to take a raft that was barely struggling to stay afloat in the stormy sea that is the electronics sector and turn it into the grandest, proudest, and most stylish vessel around? The simple answer is that he is inhuman, a miracle worker. The long answer is actually shorter than the short answer: marketing.
Sure, the invention of the iPod, the MacBook, and subsequently the iPhone, and most recently the iPad are what brought Apple back to respectability. But marketing is the reason why these products succeeded in the first place. Technologically, an iPod has the same capabilities as any other standard mp3 player, and a MacBook is no faster than a Windows laptop computer. Yet these Apple products manage to sell for twice or even three times as much as their non-Apple counterparts, thanks to Apple’s unmatched marketing department.
Apple’s design team has somehow managed to make the company’s products appear appealing to all consumers. Ask somebody about their opinion of how the iPod looks and you will probably receive a response along the lines of either “hi-tech,” “cool,” or “stylish.” Remarkably, Apple’s products are designed in a way that they appeal to people of both genders, and all ages. Further reinforcing this perception of their products is their advertisements that will imply the notion that their products are not only visually appealing, but also technologically groundbreaking, flat out superior to those of their competitors. Not using an Apple product would be just plain dumb.
After Apple manages to “convert” this first wave of customers, their success then becomes amplified due to the “mob mentality” of other consumers. Upon seeing other people with iProducts, people often purchase some themselves in an attempt to join the group, to be en vogue, “hip.”
In my next blog post, I will further explore Apple’s unduplicated marketing success, as well as examine exactly how Apple manages to sell their products to the public.