When our team was able to pick our first choice company of coca cola I was very excited to work on a project of a brand that I greatly enjoy. We also were ready to have an ‘easier’ time gathering information for our project as coca cola is such a well-known brand, however it seems that the company’s great size was an unpredicted obstacle for us. Because of its great size and huge success including all the information about the whole project was impossible so one of the best decisions we could have made was to focus on a specific region and product of the brand; Canada and the coca cola product. Overall our team was able to produce good work however our biggest challenge was being able to meet to develop this work together in a timely manner, often many parts of the assignment were finished last minute as everyone had so many prior commitments preventing them from getting the work done earlier. For the future I will ensure a strict schedule is decided before hand so that everyone is able to meet and work on all parts of the project evenly and in good time. The actual video was my favorite part of the project as I was able to use my more creative skills that I am not always able to present here at Sauder. However the video project was very stressful as it is very difficult to split up the work of such an assignment evenly, and although I enjoyed the editing process it involved more work than I was expecting. Although I felt I was quite familiar with the product I so frequently consume, this project has made me realize many aspects of the company I wasn’t aware of before including its huge variety of products and efforts to really create and experience for its customers.

sources:

http://31.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lyn1exK7y51r2q7huo1_500.gif
tumblr_m23c34j3nZ1rnlowpo1_500.gif

Response to:
http://www.siegelgale.com/blog/nikeid-a-brand-experience-to-remember/

Creating my first pair of customized football boots back in 2009 I have admired this concept ever since and continually try out new designs just for fun. The first time I found about Nike ID I was in the Nike town shop in Piccadilly Circus and was so excited that I was going to be able to see my shoes get made, however the many colored thread to my disappointment were just for appearances. More recently however I found out the Nike has actually established physical studios that for myself personally I would gain a much greater consumer experience. That’s not to say that I don’t love the ability of being able to design shoes online when I’m bored at home, but when planning to make an actual purchase being able to take part of process of choosing different materials and threads would be all the more exciting. Although I feel many more of my peers are aware of this brand nowadays there are often people who have no idea of what Nike is offering and seem very unfamiliar with the idea that customizing your shoes is an option for nonprofessional athletes. Because of this observation I realize that this extremely cool offering is greatly under promoted. With such a great experience that this brand offers one would except to see more advertisements of this offer, including on the homepage of the Nike website like it was once was.

photo sources:
http://www.thelondoner.me/2012/07/nike-id.html
http://www.nike.com/us/en_us/c/nikeid

Although we had discussed the fact that women are the dominant consumers in most markets the numbers that Sameena presents in her blog post “The She-conomy” are higher than what I would have expected. I am left to wonder how males own the things they do when the purchasing of products by males are such lower percentages. However these numbers, as Sameena discusses, do explain why marketing is so fiercely set on reaching women. Alike Gillette’s campaign that Sameena introduces, in class we saw how old spice commercials of men’s deodorant is actually speaking directly to women, the advertisements being with the line “Hello Ladies”. Similar to old spice is competing deodorant brand AXE, which uses its ads to appeal to men through focusing greatly on women’s perception of the product. The AXE ads consist of women chasing after men that use the deodorant. While this may convince men to buy the product, from personal experience I believe it also intrigues women to find out if the product is in fact as special as it seems. This leads me to believe that many products are created for women to make purchasing decisions for their boyfriends, husbands, and friends, but also for the use of the product by the women. An example of this as told by cosmopolitan is that 30% of women use male razor blades as they are sometimes seen to be of better quality and more effective, and so are purchased by women not for their male partners but rather for their own use. Cosmo goes onto explain that another reason women purchase male razor blades are because of their look “sleek, shiny and silver”. This last point as well as the fact that males often seek the approval of females explains why marketers are so set on selling their products to the dominant female buyers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uy8jKGLhVt4

sources:
http://www.cosmopolitan.com/hairstyles-beauty/beauty-blog/women-use-mens-razor-venus-110311

The She-conomy

images:
http://philosophia.uncg.edu/node/377
http://mehhappens.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/axe2.jpg

The Guy on a Horse is Back. He's on a Bike

When I first moved here last year I quickly noticed the Herschel bags that were created here in Vancouver. I also noticed them when I went home to Sweden for the summer so I began wondering how new this brand really was, as I was surprised how quickly the company was able to reach global market. I also realized I had never actually see an ad for the brand but instead had noticed it in stores (specifically little burgundy shoe store) and of course being carried by various young

adults throughout Vancouver and UBC. Marketing mag explains the marketing strategy of the two brothers who created not a product but a brand. Firstly they saw an unfulfilled need of bags that weren’t just gym bags like all the others but instead where more “utilitarian nostalgic, but really modernized”. And secondly they were not planning on mass marketing the brand with magazine a

ds but instead the partner relationships that they established. They worked together with Stussy to use some of their fabric patterns in their bags, and new balance creating special compartments in their bags for these shoes. So why these brands? They were the brands they grew up with and who’s aesthetics they really understood. They took not chances with collaborating with different brands but instead were very picky. Another collaborator who is of course of great benefit to Herschel co. is apple who is not selling their products on their online store all of the world, for me specifically the fact that there was a specific compartment for my laptop in the bag was one of the main reasons I purchased the bag. Their marketing strategy was to focus on a target audienc

e that would benefit from their bag in relation to other products that they would already have or buy, instead of placing ads everywhere they believe they are doing more with less.

sources:
http://www.marketingmag.ca/news/marketer-news/herschel-supply-has-it-in-the-bag-91994
http://shop.herschelsupply.ca

When we were asked in class if we would consider buying a Snuggie not even a fifth of the class answered that they would. The success of this product and the many other products advertised through infomercials is confusing to me as I feel they are often useless and often of poor quality but the strategy of the infomercials is able to convince many viewers to buy their products.

Bankrate.com explains that insomniacs (who are the most likely to be watching infomercials in the middle of the night) need to live a “hassle-free life”. They say that the industry of infomercials is able to continue growing through a weak economy, as “people tend to go back to the basics and seek out comfort and convenience products”. As we discussed in class it was clear that all infomercials had a common structure.

• Reveal a problem/solution(s) and the convenience of the product: you can’t use your hands when using a normal blanket, but with sleeves you’d be able to eat read and even walk around. It could even decrease gas bills because high heating would no longer be required.
• Presenting a bonus: a reading light (another “convenient product”) that compliments the Snuggie, as many buyers like to enjoy sitting on the couch and reading.
• Pressuring the buyer/creating a sense of urgency: by providing a discount (and bonus reading light) for those customers who would buy the Snuggie immediately
• Feedback/testimonials: the people in the infomercials served as reliable sources proving the product is useful and beneficial

Furthermore inc.com reveals that infomercials are actually like auditions for products, that in fact infomercial campaigns are launched in the location where the headquarters of retail chains are located so executives of the chains can track the products they see as most promising. With 95% of Snuggies currently being sold in retail stores, the “audition” infomercial can be recognized as successful.

Sources:
https://ww.youtube.com/watch?v=2xZp-GLMMJ0
http://www.google.ca/imgres?http://i771.photobucket.com/albums/xx356/EdieRose/Gif%20me/bth_image-4-1.gif
http://www.inc.com/ss/5-tips-for-a-successful-infomercial#4
http://www.bankrate.com/finance/personal-finance/infomercial-products.aspx#slide=1

I attended a whitecaps game last Saturday and was surprised with the amount of alcoholic advertising that was present during a sporting event. Thinking back at the food and beverage area of the stadium I am ableto remember what beer brand (Budweiser) was available as it was so clearly and broadly advertised but not what soft drink company (Pepsi vs. coke) was being sold as there was little promotion of soft drinks.  Before the game and during half time at least 50% of the ad’s were alcoholic adds, not only the commercials but the advertisement boards around the pitch were also of alcohol (el Jimador). Looking up whitecaps sponsors however, I find that only 2 out of 34 of its partnersare of alcohol beverage companies. Although it may seem ironic to be mixing alcohol with sports I usually understand that beer and alcohol companies are directly targeting young males. This is especially clear with leagues such as champions league advertising Heineken, but at the whitecaps game I saw a much greater range of ages and genders I felt that other advertisements may have been more appropriate and suiting for the audience of the game.

Budweiser #THANKABUD

sources:
http://www.whitecapsfc.com/partners
http://www.whitecapsfc.com/sites/vancouver/files/imagecache/620×350/sites/whitecapsfc.com/files/image_nodes/2011/01/Budweiser.jpg
http://www.whitecapsfc.com/sites/vancouver/files/imagecache/620×350/image_nodes/2013/06/2013_06_28_bud.png

To get a better idea of ethical marketing I skimmed through its Wikipedia page and found three main problems with marketing (from the viewpoint of those holding an anti-marketing stance in the ‘blogosphere and popular literature’). These are that marketing damages ‘personal autonomy’, causes ‘harm to competitors’, and manipulates ‘social values’. So I wonder how is it that a company can accomplish ethical marketing? Looking at Starbucks (which has been listed by Forbes as one of the worlds most

ethical companies 6 times) I try to see if their marketing avoids the three main problems. In class we discussed how we don’t often see commercials, or posters advertising Starbucks but instead we see the actual shops in locations convenient to students, workers and other busy areas. So does this influence a person’s autonomy? Perhaps without the stores in this location fewer people would even be considering buying coffee. An article ‘Starbucks: the marketing of ethics’ from Trading Visions website explains how the certification of fair trade coffee has become Starbucks greatest marketing tool. Companies such as Starbucks encourage the increase of ‘socially conscious

consumerism’, which can be seen as manipulating social values. The article also states that though the green logoed company offers fair trade products their main priority is rapid growth, and the company manages this priority by harming its competitors through ‘targeting successful independent stores, buying out competitors’ leases, operating at a loss, and saturating local markets’. Seeing as one of Starbucks main ways of marketing themselves are their shops they are harming their competitors when the buy out their leases and saturate local markets. This shows that though a company like Starbucks is praised for its ethical practices it is unsuccessful in achieving ethical marketing in the view of many in the blogosphere and popular literature.

Sources:

1)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_ethics
2)http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2012/03/15/the-worlds-most-ethical-companies/2/
3)http://www.tradingvisions.org/content/starbucks-marketing-ethics

Image:

tumblr_mwnaflLDkg1sf2pero1_400.gif
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-u1x0absB4P8/UIC-IS-_WPI/AAAAAAAAAGU/qhyRYBJn30g/s1600/Starbucks+Ad+%232.jpg