Maggie Meng's Blog

Sometimes I wonders how some advertisements manage to attract more people than others do. I think creativity is important however, to come up with a creative idea is not easy. Recently, I read a blog on Sony’s brand CM. This CM is basically unfolds a girl’s life using over 200 Sony products. Sony combined Japan’s culture – Bunraku (Japanese Puppet Theatre) and modern technology and displayed a story on moving screens. Here’s video showing the entire CM.

This advertisement is really creative since it shows Sony’s brand value as it accompanies you throughout your life long experiences. Also, since the current generation is tech savvy, displaying on the moving screen manages to attract more target customers.

Click Here for the full blog post!

Consumers face a lot of choices during grocery shopping. Sometimes we are even indifferent about the brands we see on shelves. How then, can marketers make a impression in consumers’ minds? Let’s take cheese as an example – personally, I’m indifferent between brand, however some brands do make impressions on me so that I choose them rather than others. In Lu Gao’s blog, she showed an commercial on Nolan’s Cheddar Cheese, as follows:

This commercial really stood out to me especially the part where the mouse start fighting against the mouse-trap.

In recent classes, we talked about brand image and how it add value to its product. Advertising in a certain interesting way that bring out the characteristic of their product (like Nolan’s seriously strong cheese) adds value to the product and also leaves mark in consumers’ mind. I really think that after this, I would pay more attention to this brand than before.

Apart from this, another brand of cheese that really caught my attention years ago is black diamond cheese string. It made an impression on consumers’ (especially children) that cheese can be FUN to eat with. If you go to its official website, <http://www.cheestrings.ca/>, it is constructed like a small playland! We can clearly see that the target market is focused on children. The company successfully promoted their brand image by animating the cheese string character:

It seems just like yesterday, when Apple suddenly became so popular worldwide. In just 5 years, we are now surrounded by tons of Apple products. You can see it on the bus, at school, or even in your own hand. But what is it that makes Apple products so special? Just like what Nicole asked in her blog “Why not Sony mp3 players, or what about a Zune?”

One thing, other than the amazingly effective advertisement Apple has, that need to be considered as a success for Apple product is that Apple always seems to be ahead of the game compare to the other competitors. 

What I focus on are style and functionality. When you compare an Apple product to others, the first thing you notice is its amazing appearence – just like its advertisements, Apple products appear to be very simple, both colour and structural wise. However, it is simple but aesthetically pleasing. Below is an picture comparison between macbook air and HP laptop.

Macbook looks thin and light and easy to carry while HP laptop appears otherwise. On the other hand, functionality wise, Apple products are simple to use and easy to understand(not to mention its attractiveness!). When iPhone came out, people are interested in its screen touch functionality, Wifi accessibility and many more. Even when later RIM introduced its Tablet, Apple still remained reputated in consumers’ eyes.

For more see link: http://www.economist.com/node/21532085

 Apple products’ functionality and quality are its competitive advantages. When other company came out with touch screen phone and tablet, Apple reposition itself by adding new features. iPhone 4S for example, implemented a talking assitant Siri, which is really attractive feature to consumers since it is both convenient and fun to play with!

As a part of Kraft Canada’s large market campaign, it is planning to launch a series of challenges for its consumers on its Facebook page. On Jan. 9, its first challenge was introduced as KD Bombing – photo bombing with Kraft Dinner in the background shown in an unexpected way.

Here’s a photo submitted to the website:

Kraft’s marketing strategy is great – holding a challenge contest with zero cost and having its facebook fans to promote for them is a great way for advertising. The technological trend allows our generation to be more socially involved through facebook, twitter, and etc. Because of this, Kraft’s marketing strategy is successfully initiated. Due to the launch of the challenge, the facebook fans has “increased by 8,000 to just over 128,000 members”.  And last time I checked, it almost hit 134,000 – that’s double the entire UBC population promoting for KD for free. Not to mention that Facebook has 800 million active users – potential/already consumers for KD. 

Get to facebook and enter the challenge! You get to become another promoter for Kraft Canada (and also ruins your friends’ photo by bombing it with KD)!

As Bells CEO Michael Sabia claimed, Olympic investment is indeed  well spent as “telecommunications services are beccoming commodities and brand values is increasingly important in differentiating them.”

In terms of strategy, Bell is establishing a long term plan to compete with TELUS. As for marketing, Bell is also differentiating its brand-identity. The t ag of associating with Winter Olympics, Bell established a new brand identity that also introduced itself to the world wide audience.

As Olympics Sponsor, Bell was permitted to pre-market its brand, which helps bell expanding its market in Western Canada. Its responsible as the telecommunication sponsor also allowed Bell to be involved in the media and gave its company the opportunity to promote its product.

 Business ethic can be defined as written and unwritten codes of principles and values that govern decisions and actions within a company. It is necessary in determing between good and bad decisions and choosing what is right.

In 2003, India released that the water used to produce soft drinks by Coca-Cola contained pesticide. The residue level of it was 30 to 36 times higher than nors set by the European Union. The fact that this problem only occured in India shows that Coca-cola is setting different standars internationally. This issue is obviously unethical in seriously endangering the health issue of Indian populations.  In this case, Coca-Cola gave the impression that its organizational culture does not have a regulated set of standards in determining good and bad decisions. The violation of Indian regulations serves Coca-Cola’s own self-interest at the cost of others’ welfare.

Operation is the process of transforming input into ouputs such as goods and services.  Operation management thus deals with operation srategyies and finding the most feasible option. This is an important part of business that helps to organize inventory and thus minimizes number of turnovers. The key to determine the amount supply required is through capacity of the business itself as well as factual measurements of the market. There are many variabilities in a market caused by the fluctuated economy and such. Due to this, lots of scheduling and planings must be done in deciding the right amount of inventory. After all, inventory does not generate any profits in storage. Rather, it carries a cost for taking up the available capacity of a company.

In deciding supply managment, one must also consider the way of spplying the products. These methods include selling through supply chain or direct business model. Supply chain allow inventory to flow in and out faster since it’s flowing from manufacturere, wholesalers, retailers and then consumers. Direct business model may be at disadvantage since it requires the company to store product and take up capacity. However, direct sell is better in that it provides direct interaction with the consumers.

In Schumpeter’s view of entrepreneurship, it places an emphasis on innovation of new products, markets or forms of organization. Apple Inc., in my opinion, is a good example for a successful entrepreneur. It’s invention of Mac system and apple products characterizes that of entrepreneurship.

Amount of Wealth Creation 

Apple Inc.’s entry created a new demand in the market which led to significant amount of wealth. It differentiates its products which created substantial wealth due to its popularity.

Speed of Wealth Creation

Apple Inc. was not as popular in its early years. However, the introduction of new inventions, such as its ipod, itouch, and ipad, picked up its speed of wealth creation. Its rapid technological development led to rapid improvements in product, thus generating a continuous increase in profit.

Risk

Like other entrepreneurs, Apple Inc. also faced a high risk while deciding to enter the market. The Mac system at first is no doubt less compatible than Microsoft. Entering a market with Microsoft as the predominant firm created the risk of facing strong competition and lack of consumer supports. However, it took on the risk and differentiated itself with further innovations.

Innovation

 No doubt that most consumers go for Apple products for its good quality and elegant appearances. It’s product such as ipod nano, shuffle, itouch, iphone, imac and ipad all have one thing in common – that is, pretty and convenient. Apple’s inventions such as the touch screen and motion control contributed to its brand identity, attracting more customers.

Demand forecast is an important part in marketing and supply chain management. How good a product sell depends on how well the forecast predicted the product market including all the variabilities in between. However, it is also really easy to screw up a demand forecast. Variances such as government policy, sudden shift in consumers’ preferences, future competitions and such will result in consequences for screw up forecast.

Why would a forecast still be important when it’s only an estimation and often likely to be a wrong one? A forecast uses the current condition in the market to generate the most likely product management in this situation. It can’t control every elements in a market, but it shows a general aspects of a market. It helps analyze the opportunity cost behind each decision and helps to chose the best one for the company. Therefore, the forecast provides an opportunity distribution which helps the company to make a final decision.

Research In Motion (RIM) is introductin the new Blackberry Tablet – the Playbook! But what’s special about the Playbook that makes the company thinks it can compete with Apple Inc.’s Ipad which has already developed a brand recognition and is still fairly popular amongst consumers?

Brand! Yes, Blackberry Smartphones are no less popular than Apple’s Iphone. RIM definitely has the potential to compete in mobile market. Its brand recognition will affect the popularity of its newly promoted Playbook. On top of this, the company is also displaying new features to the public.

Feature! The second reason why RIM will become strong competiter in the tablet market is due to the features of Playbook. The company introduces features that do not exist in Ipad but has long been wanted by the public. Apple Inc. being the predominant company in the tablet market also gives RIM opportunity. Because, RIM is offering a new choice to the consumer which is not bad at all compared to Apple’s products!

Checkout RIM’s playbook for yourself!

http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/27/rim-introduces-playbook-the-blackberry-tablet/