I stumbled across a classmate’s blog that was acknowledging Vitamin Water’s ingenious marketing strategies and I can’t help but to agree.  It seems as if Vitamin Water is doing all the right things at exactly the right times.  It was if they were on a marketing mission.

MISSION: Create an effective marketing strategy.

Step 1: When Vitamin Water first came out it caught my attention with their witty and creative labels.  Each bottle has a clever little story to read that relates to its already brilliant name.  These stories are so amusing that I find myself sometimes buying the bottle just to read the blurb on the side and so I can share that amusement with my friends.  I even have a friend that loves the labels so much that he collects them and saves them to create his own wallpaper.  Consumer attractive packaging? Check.

Step 2:Then Vitamin water introduced a list of celebrities to endorse their product.  They focused mostly on basketball players ranging from Lebron James to Steve Nash.  These pro-athletes promote the product perfectly because not only do they have great athletic abilities, but they also promote the need for vitamins to make this happen.  Successfully capture intended young target market? Check.

Step 3: They then expand further.  They made Steve Nash the Canadian celebrity endorser.  This was refreshing considering most American products don’t tend to focus on Canada much at all.  This makes consumers in Canada believe that the company cares about them and what they want.  Successful promotions? Check.

Step 4:Vitamin Water continues down the right marketing path by holding a social media contest.  People can send in videos about “how you are just like Steve Nash.” This is great for 3 reasons. 1. It creates a social media presence. 2. It is cheap. 3. It gets people talking about Vitamin Water.  What more could you ask for?  Free advertising and social media presence? Double Check.

In Conclusion:

Mission Accomplished.

There are so many clever ad campaigns around the world but one of my favourites is by MasterCard.  MasterCard’s priceless ads were frequently seen a few years back but even when I think about my favourite ad campaign today this one still comes to mind.  This campaign was clever, humorous, and memorable.  It had affective strategies, playing to people’s emotions, as in this ad:

And it also had ads that not only included affect strategies but also cognitive and behavioural strategies, as seen in this ad:

This ad makes people not only think about the environment but also makes them want change their ways about green living.

These ads are memorable but so are the tag line, “Priceless” and slogan “There are some things money can’t buy. For everything else, there’s MasterCard.” This slogan sums up the ad’s persona perfectly.  MasterCard is first being honest and noting that not all things can be bought with money but then go on to say, for all other moments in life where money is involved(as lots are), MasterCard will be there to help.   These short but sweet commercials were a perfect way to get people talking about and remembering MasterCard.

Today in my marketing class we came across the topic of branding, which is a fascinating topic to me.  It is unbelievable that every person in my class could distinguish between different companies’ logos without even seeing the entire symbol.  If recognizing and distinguishing between concepts and formulas in my classes were as easy as this, university would be a breeze.  So why can we all recognize these symbols in a blink of an eye?  Because of brand exposure of course!

Later that day I came across a blog from one of my fellow students mentioning a documentary movie about brand integration.  And what better way to expose your brand than in a movie?  Although I do have to agree with him, it is insane that companies will pay millions of dollars to have their product shown in a five second clip of a movie.  And it is even crazier to think that in the end this advertising strategy usually pays off.  Yet on the other hand, some companies also work very hard to have their products not shown in different types of media.  As I learned in class, Lady GaGa loves to incorporate different brands into her music videos and sometimes companies don’t like this.  Since they don’t want to be associated with Lady GaGa they will ensure that she is not advertising their brand.  It’s a funny world we live in; companies might pay millions to advertise their product in a video, yet on the other hand they might go to extreme lengths to avoid this from happening.

Steve Job’s death has been major news throughout the world.  It was even important enough for a student in my business class to interrupt the professor in the middle of the lecture to tell those 200 students the instant he died.  That afternoon the school was buzzing with students texting their friends about the news.  So why was this event so crucial to so many people?

The death of Steve Jobs left many questions of what would happen to Apple’s products.  Will they be able to keep their innovative ways and brilliant ideas without Mr. Jobs?  Will they still be able to market successfully without their charismatic leader?  Everyone is worried about the company’s future but I figure the company will be just fine.  The new CEO, Tim Cook, has already been in charge of the company for many months during Steve Jobs sick leave and the company seems to still be functioning the way it always has been.  Also Apple’s design chief, Jonathan Ive, has been in the company since 1992 and has been in charge of the innovative and sleek designs of Apple’s products for years.  Even though Mr. Jobs has been behind advertising that was always ahead of his time, such as the Mac vs. PC ads, the company relies on other marketing ploys as well.  As an article in the Globe & Mail said “Apple always says a ton by saying very little.” Apple uses the tactic of suspense to market their products.  By setting a release date and not saying anything further, people start talking about the product more than they would otherwise.  With Apple’s innovative marketing ploys, sleek product designs and experienced workers to take the place of Steve Jobs, Apple’s future is looking stable.

I came across an article this week that was discussing old marketing tactics and whether or not they are still effective.  As the article went on to explain why they are still relevant I also had to agree with their decision.  Just because social media is a quickly growing marketing trend that attracts many potential customers, it does not mean that the old methods of marketing are not useful anymore.  Marketing still depends on the target market.  If the company is trying to sell items to the older generation, Facebook isn’t going to work.  They may want to try resorting back to putting ads in the newspaper or in magazines that would be lying around in doctor’s offices.  Social media is a great place for advertising, but sometimes so are magazines or buses.  What else is there to do on the bus when you are commuting a short distance to school or work in the morning?  All there is to do is look around at your surroundings and the ads on the walls of the bus.  I know I read at least one ad every time I am on a bus.  That’s the place I do have time to look around.  When I am on Facebook or Youtube I don’t want to look at ads to pass the time, I want to talk to friends and watch funny videos.  I don’t think social media advertising is not effective I just think old tactics should not be forgotten or ignored.

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