After reading jenny Zimmerman’s blog titled “No frills is full of thrills” (https://blogs.ubc.ca/jennyzimmermann/2012/01/16/no-frills-is-full-of-thrills/ ) which focuses on the grocery food store chain No Frills, I got a few ideas of how their success can be transferred into other markets. It seems that a large portion of the appeal of No Frills is the perceived value of getting the best possible deal you can on food and only paying for what you need. No Frills makes it well aware to cost conscious consumers that they are paying as little as possible for their groceries. If they did not make this information so obvious I believe their store would be much less successful as that perceived value gained from shopping at the store of getting a “great deal” may be lost.

This can be compared to other low cost services such as Ryan Air where their no frills cost saving service is advertised. If this concept was carried over to other industries such as hotels which offered slightly better accommodation than sleeping in a car that was safe and clean could really gain a market share with cost conscious consumers, giving them the bare minimum of what they require for the best possible savings. It could also be brought into the transportation market to make somewhat reliable very basic cars. Another possibility surrounding this could be to expend the “No Frills” and “No name” brand name and logo into these other markets, just like Virgin does!

A Light, A bed and doorway. What else do you really need at a hotel?

I found a few things about Charlene Ng’s blog “Tutors turned celebrities” interesting and thought that some of the marketing ideas applied to marketing celebrity tutors could be applied to other commodities in other cultures. The blog post comments mainly on how tutors in Hong Kong have gained celebrity status and the schools that these tutors run are in high demand. The first thing that I found interesting about the post was the fact that tutors could be considered so highly valuable and popular as I was born in a society such as Canada which arguably under values education. After thinking about it I realized that it actually would make sense to have celebrity tutors in a society such as Hong Kong which arguably over values the education you receive in school. This combined with the current worldwide obsession with celebrities it makes sense that tutors in Hong Kong could become celebrities. I believe this marketing concept can be used in other societies who value something more than is normally valued. This has been applied to soccer in Europe and other basketball, baseball, and football in the USA. It could also possibly be applied to chefs in France, or celebrity prayer readers in Iran. This concept could be applied to create celebrities and therefore a product for them to sell in almost any culture.

“Tutors turned celebrities” Blog Link: https://blogs.ubc.ca/charleneng/2012/01/16/tutors-turn-celebrity/

My blog post is in response to a post on Drew’s marketing minute blog (http://www.drewsmarketingminute.com/2012/01/businesses-cannot-ignore-google.html). The blog touches on the advantages of using Google+ and argues that even though it is more of an after thought in the world of social media that it is crucial to consider it in an online marketing strategy. After reading the blog it made me think about a few marketing concepts, one of those being “place” as in the place in the 4 P’s of marketing. When a consumer and potential customer search for something on a search engine, they will most likely only look at the first page and maybe the second page. Having your website show up on the first page and especially in the first 5 links can make a huge difference in your sales. Another concept that the article touched on was the power Google has in controlling what website links it seeds on the first page. One of the ways Google decides who to put first when someone search for say “graphic tees” is whether or not they have decided to support Google+ and market their product over that medium. Essentially if they agree to support the second rate (atleast in the eyes of consumers) Google+ then Google will increase the firm’s chances of being ranked higher in the first rate Google search engine. It will be interesting to see how Google uses this power in the future. I did a search on Google for “graphic tees” and sure enough the first link www.threadless.com had a Google+ link on the bottom of the page.

First non ad option to click on google when search terms "graphic tees" is entered

Sure enough there is a link to Google+ on the websites home page even before Facebook