The A&F project has come to an end and I have to say it was an incredible journey and a rewarding experience because it helped me understand how important Marketing is as well as how it is a key factor for a company to succeed. These assignments were based on real world situations. From understanding the background of the company such as the history and the industry A&F was part of to recommend in what areas A&F should improve and what strategies it should implement, these assignments allowed me to improve my skills since the goal of these were to help A&F to implement the best marketing strategy that would allow them to segment the market they want and to target them in the most efficient way.

Each assignment had different objectives and missions to accomplish. This allowed me to be open minded when it comes to analyze the characteristics of A&F and how it is seen by customers around the world in order to make the best decision. Overall, this project provided us with real information about the company we chose to work on which made me realize how companies analyze themselves as well as their surroundings using in an efficient way the marketing tools we know.

Also, since the beginning of this project, I was able to meet great people who became my friends which I strongly believe that it helped the project be more fun and efficient. Each group member was fundamental for this project as everyone had different skills and opinions to contribute to the assignments. Therefore, we were able to concise every contribution to make a good recommendation.

I am proud with the results and the goals we achieved throughout this project and I am looking forward to working on more companies in the future.

In Muieen’s blog, he talks about DollarShaveClub, a company who is nothing but a producer of razors. However, they have created such a strong marketing campaign that not only provides cheap, simple, and accessible products but they have created a value for customers since they are as good or even better as the powerful brands (Gillette).

There is no doubt that the internet is one of the most powerful tools to communicate your value proposition, your ideas, your company to every customer around the world. Even though the product is not meant to be for everyone (market segmentation), a strong ad, such as the ad of DollarShaveClub, can have a strong impact on potential customers in the future.

Also, Muieen explains how this ad got 12,000 customers within the first two days of being online. This clearly reflects the power of marketing and how important marketing is because if a company can market it well, they will sell it even better.

The fact that the ad is simple, funny, and relaxed, Mike, founder of the company, is able to show customers that they don’t need fancy advertisements to show the benefits of their products. As long as you can create and capture the value on your customers, they will come to you.

I enjoyed watching the ad as well. Despite I am not part of this segment, I strongly believe that if I ever need a razor, I will go to DollarShaveClub instead of buying the overpriced brands such as Gillette.

Finally, This convinces me that there is always opportunities for people like us to take the risk and to be entrepreneurs to compete against important brands. A determinant factor will be marketing of course!.

This information was taken from Muieen Cader’s blog:
https://blogs.ubc.ca/muieencader2/2013/10/05/marketing-done-right/

Also, if you want to watch the ad, follow the link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUG9qYTJMsI

The Canadian government is approving sustainable and composting programs as well as funding projects that will allow them to become a greener country in a near future. However, private businesses are also taking into account that sustainable projects can be profitable in the short run and long run while making a positive impact on the environment. This is because the sustainable market is currently becoming a success and people believe that sustainability will become the future of business.

Growing City is a young business established in 2010. It was created to promote composting across Canada. It is a simple, clean and easy way to compost and recycle from the convenience of your office and business. This is because businesses can now reduce their waste by up to 40% or more while making a positive impact to the environment and future generations.

Growing city is currently expanding across Canada and more businesses are investing in this sustainable project. Their unique service of in-office valet collection service differentiates them from the rest and it is really simple. First, the company provides the business with their Compo-Capsules where employees put the waste in the bin. Then, Growing City does the rest. They empty, clean and freshen the bin. Finally, in about 5 months, the waste is soil.

Growing City is not only providing a service to the community but it is also encouraging businesses and people to become more sustainable. There is no doubt that Growing City has created a value among these industry where everyone can help to compost and recycle more which is part of their success.

This market is growing exponentially and more countries will want to fund these businesses because they are profitable and sustainable. At the end of the day, who wouldn’t want to make profits and save the world?

Twitter improves the way people interact with each other since its beginning in 2006. They started with the simple tweet and hashtags that allowed users to connect with everyone around the world by identifying common trends and interests among its users. Then, they introduced the stream videos from a single tweet which allows companies to advertise in a new dimension. Now, Twitter has now taken a big step further. It has recently associated to NBCU and Comcast where they have developed a new service that will allow users/subscribers to stream and record full shows directly from a tweet.

This new feature is called “See It”, “a simple yet powerful feature that creates an instant online remote control”, said Brian Roberts, Chairman and CEO of Comcast Corporation. Twitter’s new feature will be available this November and it truly looks forward to attracting more users to its by allowing this technological advance and service to its users. Live streaming has recently showed a high demand since it allows people to stream favorite shows, movies, and television live with a single click.Twitter is aiming to provide the live viewing experience with the common “tweet” along with its partners because Twitter users might find it easier to view and discover new shows in a single interface.

A variety of NBCU channels such as NBC, NBC Sports, and CNBC, will be available for its users. “See it” is being compared as the new “like” button from Facebook. This could ultimately lead Twitter to compete against other companies using a similar interfaces such as Facebook to expand their consumer segments.

Their preparation for their prospective $1 billion IPO suggests the potential benefits of this new feature that will be available this November.

This is an external marketing blog.

Article taken from: 

http://www.brandchannel.com/home/post/2013/10/10/Twitter-Comcast-NBCU-Tweet-Stream-101013.aspx

In today’s airline industry, important companies such as Qatar Airways and Turkish Airlines, who offer a luxury service to their customers, are developing new marketing strategies to attract new potential customers. These companies have increased their market shares exponentially over the last years due to their big investments on advertisements through the use of world celebrities to create a market value for new customers who will get a new experience through the use of these services. For this reason, this segment of luxury airlines is dominating this approach by understanding consumer behavior

Qatar Aiways

The advertisement focuses on Qatar Airways, a luxury airline which provides differentiated services to its customers, and how they have become the new sponsor for one of the most important European clubs: FC Barcelona. I strongly believe Qatar Airways is using this strategy to target a whole new market by creating new opportunities for the company to expand their marketing strategies. The company is using world class football players as the usual passengers they receive. Therefore, they understand the consumer behavior and they know that by using the authority principle, they can convince more potential customers, that their services are unique and worth trying. This is because people tend to respect professional athletes since they are known all over the world because of their achievements and what they represent for the football industry. Therefore, new customers will be attracted to the idea that this club is flying with Qatar Airways because of the high-quality service they are promoting.

Understanding consumer behavior can definitely have profitable results if its understood efficiently. I strongly believe Qatar Airways is doing a good job when it comes to marketing strategies and understanding their customers.

The world of marketing is a very sensitive industry where marketers have to carefully create campaigns that will eventually create value in their products and brand image for potential buyers. However, this industry has also created marketers who believe campaigns with stereotypes associated with race can have a much bigger impact on potential buyers since people may be able to relate those campaigns with someone they know, a place they have been to , or a person they saw this morning.

The Volkswagen Terrorist commercial is considered to be one of the most racist commercials in recent history.

In order to promote the strength of the polo automobile,  the Volkswagen’s ad campaign features Arabs who are “known” to be suicide bombers. As shown in the picture above, the bomb explodes but makes no damage to the car which proves to be strong enough to resist any type of damage (in this case, a bomb).

This ad was banned long time ago due to the stereotypes that it created regarding Arabs as being always suicide bombers. I feel this was an unethical approach from Volkswagen because it is not only promoting racism but hurting our society at large by creating stereotypes of this kind. This will not only affect Arabs but people who are somehow related to this stereotype or people who want to stop racism around the globe.

Unfortunately, this is one of hundreds of advertisements promoting racism. I strongly believe that ethical marketing laws should be implemented in all companies since the main purpose of marketing is to satisfy the needs and wants between sellers and buyers so each party is better of. Also, creativity with an ethical focus plays an important role since it would be able to create ad campaigns that creates value for customers of all ages. Thus, the target markets will expand and attract more potential buyers, leading to an increase in sales and profits.