Reflection on the Team Video

If only we had more time…

This video project was a lot of fun to put together. I was certainly my element, as I have some videography experience and all the necessary equipment. My main role for the project was to be in charge of filming and editing. My group-mates were the stars of the video and were in charge of writing their own scripts and arranging times with me to film. Due to limited availability on my part as well as the busy schedules of my group-mates, we sometimes struggled to get the best shot and often had to work with what we had. I believe we were innovative given our time constraints, and had some good laughs exploring the Henry Angus building.

I have learned a lot about Amazon and marketing through this assignment. My only regret is that I feel like the others in our group contributed much more to the research and writing of Parts #1 and #2 than I was able to.

General Thoughts

In general, I found this class and the Marketing Plan Assignments to be interesting and engaging. However, this class uses far too many methods to assess our learning and assign grades. I appreciate that the variety allows different learning styles to excel, but when you have to organize and complete blog posts, a video, an in-class assignment, iClicker questions, team assignments, a midterm and a final, it becomes terribly overwhelming.

This blog post is in response to a post by Tim Devaney and Tom Stein called “Why Email Is Still More Effective Than Social Media Marketing” on Forbes.com

Devaney and Stein identify social media as a useful tool, but not as effective as email when it comes to attracting consumers to online businesses. In fact, it cites some studies indicating that both Facebook and Twitter were essentially insignificant.

In this era of social media, why is it failing as a means to drive online purchases? The blog post suggests that email, Facebook and Twitter hit different user needs, similar to how companies target different segments. Facebook is a method to engage customers with the company on a brand level. Twitter offers breaking news and updates from a company. Email is for a willing audience who have chosen to subscribe to deals and information from the business.

The “willingness” factor is key. Social media offers a bombardment of information; it is easy for a user to overlook an advertisement, post, tweet or link to a website. Email is sent to people who have chosen to receive them (and if they do not want them, they can choose to stop receiving them), and is a targeted presence. In other words, potential customers who are receiving the emails want to see that information, and won’t necessarily glaze over it.

One of the challenges businesses face in producing an effective online marketing presence, is to leverage emails in a positive manner while still having an effective social media presence as an aiding tool. With many people now using their mobile devices to access email, the same information and ease of purchase needs to be communicated on a much smaller and compatible scale.

This blog post is in response to Kamila’s post Dove “Campaign for Real Beauty”

Dove has been known to advocate for natural beauty in women. Awareness is certainly a positive action, and Kamila puts it well when she says:

“Dove did a really good job by raising the issue of how we see beauty”

However, in addressing what can be a sensitive subject, Dove has also opened a can of worms in regards to what sort of message is really being portrayed by their Real Beauty commercials. Take the recent “Real Beauty Sketches” ad for example:

This feel-good commercial which has certainly incited sentiments of self-confidence in women across the United States, or as Kamila put it:

“one of the best advertising campaigns, because it is directly addressed to the real people, passing by the stereotype of female beauty with model looks”

has also come under fire for making assumptions to how we address real beauty.

On the top of the list of complaints is the idea that one of the sketches is considered ugly while the other beautiful. Does that mean that age, wrinkles, moles and face roundness constitute unattractiveness? Are women the ones that need to change their attitude towards what they look like? It begs the question whether we as society should be telling women that they are more beautiful than they think, or whether society needs to change their assumptions about beauty.

So how genuine is Dove really? Do they really believe the message they are putting out there, or are they perpetuating an idea for their own marketing benefit? I don’t know the real answer, but Dove is certainly doing something right. If the virality of their commercials are any indication, they are also doing some good along the way.

For more regarding criticisms of the “Real Beauty Sketches” Dove commercial, check out the posts below:

http://www.businessinsider.com/why-people-hate-doves-real-beauty-ad-2013-4

http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/5-reasons-why-some-critics-are-hating-doves-real-beauty-sketches-video-148772