Month: November 2010

The holiday season begins as Thanksgiving is over and it’s a month away from Christmas. US Retailers kicks off by launching the annual Black Friday sales to give a boost to its sales. However, this year, Black Friday sales only went up a little in stores due to reasons such as the increase of online shopping, discounts on products earlier in November, or the current economy situation.

There are also some consumers who camped outside stores the night before just to be the first person to get in..

Why do people get excited over limited availability? McDonald’s have recently re-launched its popular burger, McRib’s on November 13 across the United States.At the same time, the fast-food restaurant  announced that it would only be in stores until Dec 5. And consumers actually paid more visits to the store!

It’s a mix of old instincts and modern challenges, says psychologist Marie Gray, who teaches at Misericordia University in Dallas, Pa.”Our nervous systems get activated,” she says, “and we move into that hoarding, greedy thing even though we know it’s not true.”

Even though this strategy is used all the time, it still works on the consumers.

Let’s see how candy manufacturers do this:

I found Seuree Kim’s blog on Superstore having a fashion clothing line, Joe Fresh, very interesting. After reading her post, I went to search for other articles about this. Here is the one I read from Macleans:　http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/01/25/joes-fresh-take/

“Though uncommon in North America, the mixing of food and fashion has proven to be a successful retail combination in Europe and the United Kingdom. The competitive advantage of this set-up for the clothing brand, of course, is the built-in foot traffic a grocery store affords. By one estimate, Canadians go to grocery stores 1.8 times a week, but only visit a mall about once a month.” (Macleans)

I thought this was a really smart marketing strategy for students  that live on campus like me. I think the Saveonfoods on UBC should consider the idea of creating a cheap and fashionable clothing line like H&M so students would not need to bus downtown for new clothes. They could just grab some nice tops over the weekend while grocery shopping and won’t have to worry about wearing the same clothes to class everyday. It would save time for students and would generate the company profit as well.

Fresh Joe Runway- Toronto Fashion Week 2009

As I was browsing through Chow Times, I saw an interesting post the blogger did in comparing McDonald’s coffee against their rival, Starbucks’ coffee. After seeing the “four bucks is dumb” advertisement, would loyal Starbucks consumers who value Starbucks’ quality service and coffee actually switch to buying the cheaper option available? I believe this ad would only appeal to consumers who just want a caffeine boost instantly and does not care about all the other in store environment, taste, and other factors. Anyhow, this advertisement line is really catchy and would definitely influence a huge portion of  coffee consumers who are tight in budget. Starbucks, anyone?

As I was reading My Le‘s blog post about the gray area’s between needs and wants, I thought that this might be the most important point marketing is all about. Other than the basic necessities we need in life, all the other rest are considered luxury goods. Well, today, even basic items we use everyday are differentiated to the extent that even a pen can have a much higher level of value. This gray area is the place where marketers brainstorm to make consumers WANT to buy them even though there are way more cheaper options available to them.

In economics , I learned that luxury goods is a good for which quantity demanded increases more than proportional as income rises.  That is not necessarily true to some people. Some people pay debts just to buy Hermes and Chanel bags. These consumers see something so special and unique about these luxurious brands that marketing brought to them. Perhaps, it is the prestige, perhaps it is the fashion, perhaps, it really is the quality..