Under the sea

I can’t believe we already finished the very last class in Marketing. It has been an incredible  and important experience for me to grow with my teammates during this semester with Tamar’s guidance. I learned to think critically and out-side-of-box from Konrad; I learned adaptability from Gemma; I learned respectively showing disagreement from Lucas; I learned to be brave and passionate about what I love from Tamar, the coolest instructor! All in all, the video assignment  and the entire marketing course helps me learn more than just tedious book knowledge.

More specifically, during these three weeks of producing the final project, with the help from media lab and my teammates, I accomplished the first video in my life. Starting from how to record the screen movement, till use Final Cut Pro to create and edit the audio and video, I can’t believe that we finished the impossible mission. By interacting with my teammates, I see how effective and powerful a team of four could be. Contributing to the group work by applying the strengths of each individuals, proving with the honest suggestions and recommendations,  this teamwork experience takes a significant part in my Sauder experience.

What’s more, just transferred from China last year, really makes me feel disadvantage of understanding Canadian cultural and companies when analyzing marketing strategics, consumer behaviors and promotion advertisements. However, Intro to Marketing really gives me a taste of how Canadian think about business.  From the research I did for these assignments and additional reading materials, I learned that Lulu Lemon doesn’t sale fruit, Molson sells the most popular beer in Canada, and so on.

Every parts of this course are designed to provide the best experiences for participants! It changes my view of marketing and business.

Last week we discussed the most “source and excited” part of marketing, promotion.
And social media is a great modern tool for companies to communicate and interact
with their potential and existing costumers. Like doing everything else, the very first
step is to establish a goal. Here, when we promoting or create a new advertisement
the first step is to “identify target audience”. The blog posting
Social Media Strategy Step1:Find Your Audience attracted my attention. It was
posted on Post Advising by Jon Tomas.

A big part about identify target audience is by selecting the right channels.
What is a right channel? Let’s say, if your target audiences are people who
graduating from university and freshmen just got into workplace, then the social
media you can choose is Facebook, twitter, blog, fancy company site. Why? Because
they born in 90s, grown up in 00s. Facebook and twitter is part of their experience
of fun and young life which they had a good memory with.

However, as Jon mentioned in his blog, younger generation–people who born around 00s, mostly graduating from junior high or senior
high school, are bored with Facebook already and barely twitter anymore.
What does this trend show us? Social media and technology are highly correlated,
the fast pace of changing in technology will also have an affect on consumer’s
choice on social media. Younger generation like risk and excitement, and they are
the customers that the most of the business need to build lifelong relation with.

Therefore, to understand the trend of choice of social media the target audience
are using, and on what kind of devices they are using is the next big question.

Recently, a marketing blog about “new 4Ps” caught my attention. It was posted by Saul Colt on “Fresh Books could accounting“. In the posting, he mentioned that for independent business owners, the new 4 Ps should be addressed. They are namely: pancakes, parking, pedicures and   parachutes. A first glance of the posting, I think it is interesting and making sense to me. But when I read the post in a further detail, I found out it is actually promoting their product on the blog.

It makes me rethink about how celebrity and experts use their power to deliver the junk information. And readers like students who just learned the related topics are so vulnerable. Students and other information receivers are lack of the knowledge, they do not have the appropriate judgement on these topics. However, the experts and celebrities use their title and reputation in specific field to mock people who lack of information like us. This is bulling!

Therefore, as a baby marketing student, I need to think critically with the right judgments on what to read and what do not to read.  And also, discuss new ideas with friends, so that I can avoid some of the unrealistic blog postings.

I read the blog post by my teammate Konrad called “Despite Decline, LEGO Rebuilds”.

He brings up the fact that how a single company can keep increase sales even their

products are in the decline stage of the industrial product life cycle.

And Lauren discusses in more details on how does LEGO turn the trend in toys industry in

“Light on Lego”. Due to my interest in the topic, I did research,

and found out the commons of most of the companies who are

successfully turn their sale up during a decline product life cycle.

On one hand, differentiating the core benefit of the product can prevent being
substituted by new technology. LEGO is a great example. They claim that Lego
is different from traditional toys, which you can change it into new toy everyday.
What’s more, it is also different from the online games, which you can enjoy the
actual physical experiences by doing it yourself. And probably that why on the
top ten list of “reasons for loving LEGO”, “it makes adults feel like a child again”
ranked number 3.

On the other hand, LEGO was able to adapt their product to new technology.
They wildly visualize the fun of playing with LEGO through video on their website
and commercials. Moreover, LEGO launched new product line and developed
app and video games for kids. Thus, they can play with LEGO in every kind of forms.

There are tons of facts that may influence consumer behaviors.
It includes situational factors, psychological factors, or social factors
like family, and market mix. Therefore, a good commercial, in general,
should includes as much of these factors as possible to attract more
audience and potential consumers.

However, I found out that among all the factors, the most powerful
category should be psychological factors. Here is a deaf commercial
created by Pepsi during Superball:

This commercial uses the best sounds effect from the begin to the end,
which is silent! It differentiates itself from thousands of Superball
commercials. It is unique! Especially in the Superball period, when people
are overwhelmed by loud cheers and musics. This silent commercial really
makes people stop for 30 seconds and to think. Without the best music,
without the celebrities, but the belief about diversity culture that Pepsi
carries can be way much more influential than other factors.

Here is another commercial by Pepsi, which one do you like better?

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The meaning of marketing in my mind:

It is a mixture of colorful graph, attractive words and crazy idea that highlight the bright side of the “stuff”, and beautifully hide the rest. Based on ideology, marketing manipulates our thoughts.It is powerful, but most time it is silly.

I don’t think the subject marketing should be taught under the faculty of business. It should belong to the faculty of arts, either similar to film study or psychology.

Hopefully, my shallow understanding of marketing will change at the time I finish this course…