Jennifer’s blog,  Friend or Foe? – A Look At Buyer’s Behaviour, discusses some key advantages and disadvantages marketing as brought us as it’s developed over the 20^th and 21^st century. I would certainly agree that while marketing has brought us creativity and innovation, and without a doubt has had a significant impact on my life I would also agree that it’ overwhelming the impact marketing has had on our society with regards to buying behaviour in the ways it’s affected perceived status and stereotypes. However, I would disagree that this is entirely negative or an inescapable reality that humans are subjected to. I would argue that it’s the opposite. While companies continue to find new ways to push the social boundaries and marketing laws it has forced us, as consumers, to think twice before automatically accepting the message delivered to us.

Rather than creating a hierarchy among consumers based on status I believe that today’s marketers are playing a game of cat and mouse with customers; seeing to what limit they can toy with the minds of naive brand followers and as such, essentially making a fool of their own target market.  As ironic and somewhat amusing this may be to those who are aware of the misleading marketing schemes, consumers still be fooled by the superficial message of today’s marketers. Companies like Dove have done the public a favour by creating their campaign “Dove Evolution” – a campaign that I would deem eye-opening even for the most aware consumers. Click the link below to

Through my online research of marketing blogs I came upon HubSpot, a blog that is considered to be one of the top 10 Marketing Blogs to watch in 2011.  A recent post on HubSpot entitled “The Ultimate Guide to Mastering Pinterest for Marketing” caught my attention. According to HubSpot’s statistics, Pinterest reached 5^th on Hitwise’s list of top 10 networking sites in December 2011, exceeding both LinkedIn and Google+.

Whether realizing it or not, HubSpot’s blog has essentially led readers through the first three steps of the ‘Buyers Decision Process for a New Product’. HubSpot has increased awareness merely by including Pinterest in their blog roll, thereby eliminated the need for customers to seek outside information in the interest stage.  More specifically, by including information to answer questions such as ‘What is Pinterest, and how does it work?’ ‘Pinterest Etiquette’, ‘How to create a Pinterest account’, and ‘How to create a following on Pinterest’. If this hasn’t already enticed the Blog readers enough, the blog then proceeds to mention 13 ways to use Pinterest for Marketing, recognizing that readers of this blog are already on HubSpot in the first place as they have an interest in online marketing.  This list of Pinterest applications likely sways the reader one way or another on their evaluation of the site – deciding whether or not they want to give it a try.

Finally, what I found most interesting when reading the HubSpot blog post was how quickly social networking sites can go viral. We’ve learned (and witnessed) that technology can quickly create new markets and opportunities. Pinterest has managed to attract 3.3 million users worldwide in only 22 months of operation. While it may be difficult to tell how popular the site with be with general consumers, we can be sure that marketers will be watching the progress of Pinterest with great interest.

http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/31147/The-Ultimate-Guide-to-Mastering-Pinterest-for-Marketing.aspx

We’ve discussed in class that there are a variety of forms of communication businesses use to market their products, and often varying degrees of effectiveness, a strong marketing campaign can make all the difference between a business succeeding or not.

If there were one group from whom I would expect effective marketing, it is the Sauder School of Business. With experienced professors and administrators along with hundreds of well-trained marketing students graduating each year – an effective Sauder marketing campaign is almost inevitable. On multiple occasions and in a variety of locations, I have come across advertisements for Sauder on airport billboards. These advertisements are simple, straight to the point, and easy to understand as you walk by on the way to your airport gate.

Looking around the classroom in any of my large first or second year classes in Sauder, it is clear to me that my class is very diverse and that Sauder has established their target market to be not only motivated and high-achieving Canadian high school graduates but high school graduates from around the globe. It is clever on Sauder’s part, why not make the application process that much more competitive while introducing different cultural points of view to the classroom? (Plus let’s not forget to mention the added advantage to Sauder of receiving student international fees.)

In my view, this is a proactive and sustainable marketing approach that Sauder has taken as part of their strategic plan. As Sauder attracts more international students and word spreads about the success of its graduates, it would be difficult to imagine Sauder not receiving increasingly more international applications each year enabling it to continue to diversify our program.