Month: November 2010

It seems kinda strange that we could think about education as a business….as stated in My’s Blog

While it is rather convincing that most schools are simply corporations seeking out profits, I would argue that they are somewhat forced to charge such fees. The real reason why we pay is prestige, but the reason why there is prestige is because we pay. It is a privilege that one can attend Harvard for university, or a privilege that one can become a professor at UBC.  But a university can only be as good as the students attending, and normally, the best students are a minute population from all over the world that are willing and able to pay for good education. This is why Harvard can charge such extreme education fees.

If Harvard did not attract the brightest minds every single year, their institution would not be well branded.

Whether this is ethical or not…I would say it is. If Harvard did not receive excessive tuition fees every year, they would not able to finance the research and projects they produce. In the end, everything tends to return back to society in the form of services. It’s just not visible to us sometimes.

Interestingly, we don’t really know what we want unless we get to compare things

Please skip to 13:00 🙂

After watching this part of the video, you will realize that there are instances in which our decisions can be influenced through comparison.

Dan Ariely gives us three options:

As you can see from The Economist, a well respected magazine, they put a redundant option of print subscription, charging $125 while charging $125 for print and web subscription.

Is it useless? We find out that it’s not!

It was found from this study that after taking out the dominated option, only 32% preferred the print and web subscription. Dan Ariely suggests to us that this is because we compare our choices; we rank our best one based on other alternatives. If Printing is worth $125, then i should definitely get print and web subscription for $125! But if they don’t tell me that the print option is worth $125, then I can simply assume that I’m paying $66 for the printed version.

This has HUGE implications for marketers! You can literally tell your customers what they want! Just charge two prices, and one bundling price. Dominated options aren’t so useless afterall 😉

So I’m listening to the radio, and the ads come up.

First kudos, then something about skin care, then business, business, business, business….

What?! Why is ‘business’ repeated at least once every sentence?!

I should have known better…CIBC…

I’m wondering whether this is a new marketing tactic, simply repeating the word ‘business’ to brand itself around the concept of business and finance. I highly doubt that it’s a coincidence, since these guys spend a lot of money just to get some air time on the radio.

The effect is that  you kinda subconsciously relate CIBC to business. CIBC uses this tactic to consolidate their brand position in their customers’ mind. I find it useful, as long as people don’t realize what you’re doing. Once people find out, it kinda gets a bit boring in my opinion. It’s like the magician’s trick; when you don’t know how they do it you’re amazed, but once you find out about it their trick doesn’t have any effect on you.

For me, it doesn’t really make me think of CIBC as more business-like than I already do, I just find the ad’s repetition of ‘business’ to be very amusing.

I really wish that I have an audio clip of the ad….but unfortunately I don’t! 🙁

This post is dedicated as a reply to Professor Cubbon’s blog post

In his post, Professor Cubbon challenges marketers to evaluate the Old Spice video. I believe it can be looked at from two angles.

Awareness:

I’ve always thought of the Old Spice commercial to be successful in creating humor, but I never really thought about it to have created value for its product. Sure, I’m now aware of the Old Spice brand, and I’m aware that P&G owns it, but I have always been aware of this brand. It is hard to argue with a 2700% increase in Twitter followers, or a 300% increase traffic to www.oldspice.com.

Sales:

However, we must be aware that while awareness has definitely improved, nothing has really changed for sales. Looking at P&G’s financial statements, they seem to be hovering at an average of 78 billion dollars of sales revenue, which suggests that the video has not proven itself successful yet.

Our Conclusion?

From the analysis, we seem to be able to quickly conclude that the ad was not very successful in boosting sales. Though people like the humor, they’re not willing to pay for it. I myself, being a guy very concerned with the way he smells, have never thought about buying Old Spice after seeing the video. It just hasn’t entered my ‘evoked set’ of consideration yet.

However, if there’s one thing I learned in marketing, it’s that we should be patient with the results. The fact is, it’s only been 2 years since the ad has been launched, and the immediate effects have not yet been felt. Though we may be turning impatient, brand awareness has actually led to people knowing the brand as opposed to not knowing it, and thus increases the likelihood that they will buy Old Spice. It’s not a garuntee, but a likelihood is better than no likelihood, right?

A quote I learned from marketing really stuck to me…it goes:

“Branding is the promise you make, your brand is the promise you keep.”

I really liked this quote because I believe that it holds a lot of truth and validity, and thus I began to think more about branding as a whole. I used to believe that branding was about how people thought about you, but then people don’t just simply generate random ideas about others. Most of their thoughts are deduced directly from your actions. A one time thing doesn’t quite cut it either, you must be consistent.

So the best strategy for branding really isn’t about getting the word about yourself out there, it’s about doing something over and over and over again until people know you for it.

Say you win a Math competition once, but never again. Contrast this with someone who wins consistently. Who has a stronger brand in mathematics?

I guess in some ways that’s what a degree does for you. Most people nowadays say it’s ‘all about experience’ and that degrees are just ‘for show’. In some ways, it could be, but at the same time your degree helps exemplify your brand. It’s just another way to add on to people’s image of you. If you have a degree in Accounting, your brand will be that similar to an Accountant. If you have a degree in Marketing, your brand will be that of a marketer. Of course, real-life work experience and results contribute heavily towards your brand as well, but degrees seem to be good add ons in this respect.