Category: Comm 296

A classic activity in any marketing class is the brand recognition game. Show a famous logo on the screen and have students call out any and all words that come to mind when they see that logo. Apple: sleek, innovative, simple, clean, efficient. Brands and logos are taught hand in hand and the common misconception is that the logo generates the brand, instead of just representing it.

You would never be able to describe a stranger’s personality just by looking at their face. The same goes for a logo and a brand. Its easy to describe brands like Coca-Cola and Apple when we see their logos, because we know the brands so well. But what about companies we have never heard of before? We could never describe their brand just by looking at their logo.

A company’s brand is its personality and character.  And just like a human’s character, it is built by the choices the company makes, the endeavours it pursues, and the ideals with which it associates, not the logo.

Logos are used to represent a brand that the company has worked so hard to develop, just as you remember your best friend’s personality and the experiences you share, when you look at their face.

I have recently completed an 8 month marketing competition with NESTEA, Coca-Cola and Inventa called NESTEA TheRecruit. Think of it as the apprentice but for marketing. 24 teams from universities across Canada competed in a series of marketing challenges until only 8 teams were left.

The final challenge was to create a 30 second television commercial for NESTEA’s new core creative idea. It was a challenging and stressful process to design a concept that captured the NESTEA brand and to which the target audience would respond.

The fun part, however, was last weekend! NESTEA flew us out to Toronto to present our commercial and the rationale behind it to top marketing executives from Coca-Cola, Inventa and NESTEA. We had to explain EVERYTHING, from why we chose the actors and locations that we did, to why we think the concept fit the NESTEA brand.

We spent HOURS in our hotel room practicing the presentation over and over. There was so much on the line, and we wanted to win so badly. I have never been as nervous as I was that morning.

Finally the moment came. We stood in the board room of the Coca-Cola head offices giving the presentation we worked so hard for, and it was such an incredible and exhilarating adrenaline rush. I loved it. I felt so comfortable up there and had so much fun that I didn’t want the presentation to end. We walked out of the room and wanted to jump up and down screaming.

We came 2nd!!!

This experience gave me such good insight in to a career at an advertising firm. From working with the needs and wants of a client to create their advertising material, to actually presenting our ideas to them with huge stakes on the line. I LOVED IT!!!

Morgan Surlock is most famous for eating nothing but McDonald’s for 30 days during the filming of his exposing documentary “Supersize Me”. Now he is back with another creative and out-of-the-box project; a documentary about product placement, entirely funded by product placement.

In his recent TED Talk, Morgan explained that the concept behind this documentary is transparency. He wants to give viewers a clear look into the world of marketing and product placement. And while the movie has not yet been made or released, it has me thinking about my own personal opinions on product placement.

From the perspective of the consumer, I find it one of the more tolerable forms of promotion, but only when executed well. We are unimpressed and unresponsive when product placement is executed poorly: an actor is drinking a can of pepsi with his hand in a very awkward and unnatural position to insure the pepsi logo is in full view, drinking at a very slow rate and for an abnormally long length of time. Not cool. We can clearly see companies are doing it in the hopes of making more money and we will not fall for those tricks.

Subtle product placement, while running the risk of being so subtle consumer’s do not notice the product, is far more unintrusive, leading to more favourable positioning in a consumers mind. If an actor is playing basketball with his friends, clearly thirsty so casually and naturally reaches for a can of pepsi on the table, takes a few gulps and places it back down again, I am far more likely to register my own thirst and venture to the fridge for a can of pepsi.

In a world so saturated with marketing, sometimes it’s the subtle that stands out.

Rebecca Black. No explanation needed. But what is the background story behind her success/failure (however you want to look at it)? The Answer is the Ark Music Factoryand their business plan is definitely unique for the Hollywood music industry.

Most big name record labels focus on quality over quantity; finding that one shining star with raw, unique talent that will stand out above all other artists in such a saturated industry. They pour a huge amount of funds and resources into launching their career and in the hopes of cashing out big time when the records go platinum.

The Ark Music Factory has decided to turn it around, focusing on quantity over quality. A recent Gizmodo article describes the business as “a production company of sorts that finds wannabe singers, mostly teen girls, and writes them a quickie pop song, slaps together a video, and sends it out onto the internet.” The hope is that one of those many terrible videos catches on, goes viral and ends up making them mad profits.

It doesn’t get much more viral than 86,348,287 views on Rebecca Black’s Friday music video. But with the fame escalating from how terrible the song and video are, did their plan actually work?  Yes, all of North America wakes up every Friday morning singing a particularly annoying song but according to a slate article, Rebecca Black has only earned about $40,000 and Ark Music Factory a portion of that. So unless Rebecca proves she can actually sing and becomes the next Justin Bieber, Ark Music Factory needs to rethink its business plan.

I guess it now all depends what Rebecca Black decides to do next. Saturday?

We are all familiar with the term “marketing is everywhere”, and while we understand the exaggeration of this statement, it is becoming increasingly and scarily accurate. As marketers desperately search for new ways to “get to us”, we find it harder and harder to avoid their advertisements and commercials.

Remember the days when you could go into a public washroom and stare at the back of a blank door? When you didn’t have to close 7 pop up ads to view a web page? Promotional materials and tactics are undoubtedly developing at a rapid rate but when have they gone too far?

AT&T have recently announced a service called ShopAlerts in which subscribers can receive text ads and promotions for certain companies based on their location. AT&T can tell your close to KMart? Expect a text with KMart’s latest offer.

This could prove very beneficial to KMart customers if they were indeed planning on doing some shopping at KMart that day. Only problem is the location technology that AT&T is using isn’t that smart. You could just be driving past KMart on your way to work and your phone will start beeping.  Then what if you drive past another participating store just seconds later? Beep beep beep. AT&T claims that at present subscribers will receive a maximum of 4 texts a week, but when participating companies load on the pressure, chances are AT&T will increase this number.

Many of us try hard to avoid advertising; downloading TV shows online or not signing up for promotion emails. I find it hard to believe this service will be successful until AT&T can improve the technology and better target the text recipients.

I am not usually one to increase purchasing because of large promotions, but there is something about this year’s Roll Up the Rim to Win (RUTR) promotion at Tim Hortons that really grabs me. I have never been into it in the past, so why now?

This year it is more than just buying a usual cup of coffee with the thought process of “it would be nice if I won something”, it is a competition among my friends that ironically started by negative word of mouth!

My friend Elisha Allen started complaining that she had bought 8 cups of coffee and hadn’t won anything, when the chances are 1/6. Her facebook, twitter and word of mouth was all about how angry she was at Tim Hortons; Starbucks was better. I didn’t think anything of this until I bought my first RUTR coffee and won another coffee…first try 🙂 I then followed to win a donut from that prize coffee.

I updated my facebook status to make sure Elisha and the world knew about my 2/2 success, and that is when it all took off. The war was on! Now all of our friends are buying more Tim Horton’s than usual, and updating their facebook status’ when they win, just to compete with each other and annoy Elisha …who, determined to get one win, is now at 0/11.

Tim Horton’s sales increased within my group of friends as a result of negative word of mouth!

Promotions such as this one can be a huge success, but they need something extra to really take off, something so organic that it cannot possibly be incorporated into a marketing plan. Customers need a motivation more powerful and intrinsic than winning a prize. It just happens and the corporation must RRROLL with it.

Ali Birston, among many others, jumped on the train of uproar over the new Starbucks logo in her January blog post titled “The Evolution of the Starbucks Siren”.  Her post explains the reasoning behind the alteration to the logo and the negative reactions from many loyal customers. Nevertheless, she still considers it a smart strategic move.

Only problem is…where is this logo? As I got off the bus this afternoon in the cold and rain, trudging through the slush the snow became, I couldn’t help but venture in to starbucks for a cup of hot, sweet goodness to cheer me up. I sit here now with cup in hand, still staring at the traditional logo 3 months after the announcement was made. Even when I google “Starbucks Logo” the new logo cannot be found in the top results.

Nigel Hollis writes in a blog for the Harvard Business Review, that the new logo’d cups and merchandise will begin distribution this spring but this poses the question: is such a lengthy gap between the announcement and execution such a strategic move?

I understand the need to deplete existing inventory before introducing new items and on one side of the argument, making the announcement so early allows time for the public to accept and expect the change. But Starbucks faced such an uproar from loyal customers back in January, now that everything has settled down should they expect another spout of negative publicity once this logo is actually in customer’s hands come Spring? Would it not have been more strategic to announce and execute, power through the negative reactions or embrace the positives, then let the dust settle for good?

Just like you can’t judge a book by its cover, you can’t judge a coffee by its mug…I won’t be giving up my cup of hot, sweet goodness anytime soon!

Marketing is often perceived as a clever way of manipulating consumers to buy a product and ultimately increase a company’s profit. As a socially aware student intending to pursue a marketing degree I feel it my duty to defend this common accusation.

Marketing is finding out what consumers want or need, and giving it to them.

Many corporations and entrepreneurs make the mistake of creating a product then using marketing to try and convince consumers of its value. Marketing needs to be the first step, not just the last! What if those corporations focused their marketing resources on finding out what consumers want…then creating a product to satisfy that need. The level of persuasion and manipulation in marketing strategies would be far less and companies would have a higher focus on making a difference in the lives of consumers, instead of just making profit.

This is why I consider market research to be one of the most important aspects of marketing. It’s hard, it’s complicated, it’s costly and it’s time consuming…but it’s very important. Afterall, isn’t it more complicated, expensive, and time consuming to try selling a product that no-one wants?

Seth Godin explains this concept perfectly in his very short but to the point blog post titled “Date Certain”. He states that FedEx‘s success is down to the fact that it really understands what its customers are looking for in a delivery service. While competitors believe customers want the fastest delivery possible, FedEx has clearly completed extensive market research to discover that customers would much prefer an exact delivery date, even if it takes longer.

It’s not hard to sell a product or service, as long as it is something consumers want. Take the time to find out that information.

I do not like Christmas shopping.

I wanted to get my family the most heartfelt yet hilarious, unique and memorable gifts but did not have the time, desire or money to shop for them. Somewhat of a small dilemma.

Then I discovered Groupon and it was as if Santa Claus came early. I could buy my parents unique and expensive gifts at huge discounts all by checking my emails in the morning.

But how does the traditional consumer decision process play a role in Groupon’s incredibly unique shopping experience?

1) Need recognition – I needed Christmas presents for my family (may not have received any of my own otherwise).

2/3)  Search for information/Evaluation of options – I really didn’t. The structure of Groupon’s ” daily discount” philosophy meant that I couldn’t compare my options. I had to decide each day “yes or no” and there was no going back if yesterday’s turned out to be better. I had to be ruthless.

There was a great deal of psychological risk involved in my purchases. Will they like it? Will I be excited to watch them open this?  I also had an evaluative criteria: I wanted an ‘experience’ not a ‘good’ and something that my parents have never done before. Of course a reasonable price was important too.

4) Purchase – so easy!!! click.

5) Post purchase – no regrets! They loved their presents and I was more excited for them to unwrap their gifts than I was to unwrap my own! Dad got 4 minutes in a skydiving wind tunnel and Mom got 2 tickets to an 80s prom themed party.

So it seems that Groupon purchases follow a very similar consumer decision process but without the ability to easily compare options. What a smart marketing plan! They get the consumers to commit to the purchase by applying a disguised “now or never” pressure.

Thanks Groupon for saving Christmas!

In marketing, the point of sale, the actual transaction of goods for money, may be the hardest thing to achieve. This is especially true for Gold’s Gym in the Village, selling memberships for over $500/year when the Birdcoop next door has it for $50. So how did they get me to buy a membership?

I was stopped in the street by a Gold’s employee offering a free pass. He called me the next day saying my name was put into a draw and I won the second prize of a 30-day membership. I went in to the gym to set up my 30-day pass, expecting that they would try selling me a full membership so ready to stand my ground and say no.

The same guy that stopped me in the street showed me around the gym, discussed my fitness goals and of course, pulled out the membership binder. I knew this was coming. He told me that if I bought a full year membership:

• I could get 2 months free (instead of the 1 that I won)
• He could call his manager to try and get a discount on the other 10 months
• He would wave the $199 initiation fee
• I could put my membership on hold if I am not here over the summer
• I can resell my membership on craigslist if I can’t commit to the full year

I FELL FOR IT!!!

Walking away after signing on the dotted line I felt terrible because I started seeing ALL the red flags

• He probably called everyone who signed up for the free pass, telling them they won a 30-day pass
• When he went into his office to “call his manager” he was out again in 30 seconds…no phone call took place
• NO ONE PAYS THE INITIATION FEE!
• The contract said it would cost me $65 to put my membership on hold over the summer
• The fine print clearly says that no selling of the membership is allowed under any circumstances.

It was clever. As a marketing student I can admire the creativity and execution of that sale but as a customer, I know he did it all wrong. Value based marketing of this era is about creating a trusting relationship with your customers and ensuring they have confidence in your business. It’s about creating long-term relationships  with customers that are satisfied with the services and want to keep coming back.

After all the scams and tricks Gold’s played on me I have no faith or trust in that gym, to the point where I will be cancelling my membership and receiving a full refund. They had me as a new customer but with the lack of trust I will not become a regular purchaser, let alone a loyal customer or an advocate.

Gold’s taught me how not to sell a product or service.