Team#4 Video Reflective – My Perspective

The video assignment with our team was one I will definitely remember. Although the task did take a lot of time, it was much more rewarding than your typical paper or class presentation.

We faced the following challenges along the way:

Sound quality –  Although we filmed our video a couple weeks before the due date, the microphones were already all fully booked. This was a challenge we overcame with voice overs and careful sound editing.

Embarrassment – We filmed ourselves in public places doing not the most usual of things (i.e. wearing suits for a business meeting in McDonald’s, playing the air guitar in Starbucks, or wearing garbage bags for shirts) therefore were exposed to potential embarrassment, however, we managed to keep our dignity and straight faces for the most part.

Video Software We weren’t the most tech savvy group, but when you watch the video and hear the sound effects and visual effects we were able to add, it clearly illustrates how we learned a lot and improved in that area.

All in all we overcame the issues as a group and managed to put together a very solid final video.

Our goal was to really capture the criteria in a fun way that was entertaining for the viewers. We all agreed that we did not want a video of us standing around holding a script speaking, nor did we want a boring narrative. After bouncing around many ideas in group brainstorm meetings we decided we could best illustrate our message to the viewers by conducting a question and answer session. We then realized no one does this is  better in real life than Jimmy Fallon on “The Tonight Show”… so we did just that and here it is!

VIDEO

Our team’s mixture of four guys and two girls seemed to be a mix that worked well and we were able to get many good ideas, suggestions and perspectives from all individuals. I made some great friends, and have a video that I can now be proud of and share to family and friends.

Special thanks to Caffe Artigiano on the exceptional coffee during the video shoot, and also a special thanks to McDonald’s for their $1.39 value menu which made this video somewhat affordable for our frugal university selves.

Will Lululemon Successfully Expand to Europe & Asia?

Lululemon hit rock bottom when the following occurred:

-CEO Christine Day resigned

-Recalls for see through pants

-Chip Wilson the founder of Lululemon blamed this on women wearing it possibly being too big (article here)

These three things all happened to Lululemon within the year and they not only hurt the brands image, but, also the brands stock price.

Now in an attempt to rejuvenate the brand, the new Lululemon CEO Laurent Potdevin hopes go expand internationally and tap into both the European market and Asian market. This is going to be a very risky move because it is a very competitive industry with competition such as The Gap coming out with much cheaper alternatives and Lululemon is a less known brand in those markets.

Lululemon has positioned themselves at the top of the yoga/athletic clothing market therefore charge a premium price for their apparel. It is unclear how the European and Asian market will react to the higher prices in comparison to competition. There is however, clearly a lot of potential for increased profits and global market share if the expansion works. Lululemon will be going to these international markets using “Direct Investment”. This is the highest risk strategy for international expansion, yet highest reward.

It will be very interesting to see how the Lululemon marketing team markets their product in these areas. Will they use similar marketing techniques as in North America? Will the brand be recognizable in these markets? If not, how will the justify the high prices on a brand that no one has heard of?  These are all very difficult tasks that the marketing team for Lululemon is going to face.

Will this move reward the stock holders and help revive the companies financial statements and possibly give the brand a better public image? Or will this move be the beginning of the end for the Canadian company?

Re: Super Bowl Sunday Let Down

After reading Jessi Hilton’s blog regarding Super Bowl commercials I remembered how great the golden retriever Budweiser commercial was!

Now what do puppies and beers have in common? Absolutely nothing. But everyone loves a cute puppy, and this immediately engages the viewers. The commercial is a heartfelt and dramatic story of a small golden retriever puppy who befriended a Clydesdale in a rural farm town.

The emotional song “Let Her Go” by Passenger added to the commercial’s story and helped capture viewers’ attention through familiarity because the song was a top hit at the time of the Superbowl.

The main reason this advertisement was so successful to me and apparently Jessi and others was because it had the ability to immediately engage the viewer. Typically when commercials come on I pay little interest to them and resort to my phone for entertainment during the two minute break, however, when I saw the cute little puppy I couldn’t turn away from the TV screen. The puppy and horse companionship along with the music captured my attention and I was honestly curious and interested in watching the story unfold. The moment the story climaxed and captured the viewer’s highest level of interest was the same moment Budweiser strategically revealed their image. This left a lasting impression on me.

I believe in today’s time-poor society, viewers need to be engaged immediately in a commercial or else they will move their attention onto their phones or other things. Budweiser was able to achieve this and the ad received praise and recognition from many of the viewers. My advice to advertisement campaigns is to focus on some of the seven principles of consumer behaviour to capture your target consumers’ attention. Consistency, commitment, authority, scarcity, reciprocity, social validation and liking are seven categories which can strategically influence your viewers and potential customers. Read more about these 7 principles in the chapter summary HERE and good luck in creating your next ad!

 

Pep Talk Netflix Canada Commercial

The new Netflix Canada commercial is by far the most humorous commercial I have ever seen. Why? Because it is relatable as me, like most Canadian movie lovers have watched a sports film where a coach has given a motivational speech (Any Given Sunday speech by Al Pacino is the speech that I immediately think of).

Take a look at the commercial HERE.

Now, when I tried to figure out why this commercial was so effective on me I realized I was exactly who the commercial was targeting. I have been in a hockey dressing room when a coach has said a motivational speech many times before, just like in the commercial. I along with many Canadians who have played hockey and been in that dressing room (or Canadians who at least understand the hockey culture) were the perfect target market for the commercial to focus on. Netflix did a great job in realizing this and succeeded in making a funny commercial that many people could relate to.

Would this commercial have been as effective in other countries? Probably not. Likely many countries wouldn’t have understood the movie reference the coach was talking about and the location of the hockey dressing room wouldn’t have struck home with viewers in many other countries.

Well done Netflix! Your commercial was effective and I am happy to be a proud Netflix user after watching the commercial.

Re: Marketers Score Touchdown on Social Media

After reading Tamara Gaffney’s blog “Marketers Score Touchdowns on Social Media” it shows how much exposure companies can get during the Superbowl. The increase in social media attention was substantial for the companies that chose to advertise, but is it worth the extremely high cost of 4 million dollars for the 30 seconds of advertising time?

I began to wonder how social media translates into sales? The saying “any publicity is good publicity” is one thing, but, is spending 4 million dollars on a short ad that increases social media attention and traffic for the brand going to translate into increased sales?

The graph below shows that social media traffic can indeed have an impact on sales, referrals, increased profit margins and more!

A Superbowl advertisement mixed with social media attention actually worked on me this Superbowl (keep in mind I am a cheap consumer who normally is not overly  persuaded by ads).

The advertisement campaign that worked on me was from the company SodaStream.  The Superbowl commercial originally released by SodaStream had a mention of both Coke and Pepsi, which caused the advertisement to be banned from television. This forced the company to make a revised commercial. The ban boosted the exposure and traffic across social media outlets. Then, the revised ad lured me in because there was a recognizable famous person in it (and attractive one at that in Scarlett Johansson) while the banning had already caught my attention on Twitter. Both of these factors combined was enough for me to Google the company and visit their website to see what the product was all about. Luckily for SodaStream I happen to love soda water so immediately when I visited the company’s site the product appealed to me (was this lucky? or did SodaStream figure the demographics of the individuals watching the Superbowl would likely enjoy carbonated beverages?).

Since the Superbowl I have already placed an online order for this product. I have justified to myself that it will save me money in the long run, as I am a frequent club soda purchaser. Yes, I was a victim to this advertisement campaign but it was not only the TV ad, it was a combination of the ad and the social media traffic from the ban. These two streams which simultaneously caught my attention were the key factors in me purchasing the product – without both of them I would not be receiving a SodaStream in the mail in 5-10 business days.

 

 

Business Ethics Comm296

Bounty Program:

The New Orleans Saints NFL team had established incentives for players in injure other teams star players during football matches. This gave New Orleans players increased incentives and bonuses for big hits. These large hits in turn would benefit the team with increased media exposure as well has an impact on results (wins/losses), as injuring an opposing team’s top player is of large advantage to the Saints during a game. The defense therefore strengthened because of these incentives.

Was this incentive program a program that demonstrated good moral ethics? Most definitely not. The Saints were severally punished when news broke out about this bounty program, and the consequences outweighed the benefits.

New Orleans player celebrating after a hit which injured an opponent.

 

The team was fined $500,000 dollars, had to lose a second round draft choice in 2012 and the head coach Sean Payton who knew about the bounty incentive program was suspended for the full 2012 season. The general manager received an 8 game suspension while the assistant coach was suspended for 6 games.

In the past the New Orleans Saints had a world class franchise that fans and other organizations looked up to. The work they did for the community after hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the success the franchise has had on the field since 2009 (which is when the program was said to be initiated) had given the franchise and amazing reputation, one amongst the top in the NFL. However, this ethics issue caused the team to receive not only terrible publicity but also suffering on the field. The team went from 13 wins, 3 losses and making the playoffs to 7 wins, 9 losses and not making playoffs the year following the incident. Franchise win/losses link per year.

The negative press experienced from the bounty program will be remembered by many for years and years to come.  It is amazing how ethics issues do not show up on financial statements and are not correlated to a company’s assets but can have such a dramatic effect on a company’s success and image.

This is just one of many examples regarding ethics in business. Unfortunately it seems in today’s competitive business world people are willing to do anything for success. People need to be aware that short term success which infringes on proper morals and ethics can have a long term negative impact on a company.

The Saints marketing team and franchise has a lot of damage control to do after this incident and it will likely take a lot of community work and time to regain the positive image they once had.

Dealth Penalty for Gay’s in Uganda?

It is the year 2012, and the world is still incapable of accepting gay rights. More specifically, The Ugandian Government has proposed an Anti-Gay law. This law punishes those who don’t comply with all regulations with the death penalty. This disgusts me.

This attempt at implementing an anti-gay law is shocking. While parts of the world such as the US are working to legalize gay marriage nationwide, countries like Uganda are proposing the death penalty to those guilty of aggravated homosexuality . Remember the days of sodomy laws? Those were abolished for a reason. People do not marry soley for reproduction and money anymore, people can now marry for love. Uganda is a developing country yes. And they may differ in relgious beliefs and education but there is no excuse for application or support of a law which undermines an individuals freedom to love.

My hope is that the rest of the world will realize how heinous this law is and act in abolising any chance it has to become legitmate. FREE LOVE. Let each individual live the life they deserve and allow them to love whomever they wish. I advocate for universal acceptance of each individual REGARDLESS of circumstances.

LOVE LIFE.

 

Pearson Airport Drug Smuggling

In a span of 4 days from November 9th to November 12th, Canada Border Services Agents have seized around 7 million dollars worth of  cocaine at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport.

The flights were coming from the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Trinidad and More than 54kg’s were seized from 3 bags.

I travel by air frequently and I am pretty naive about the drug smuggling issue. I have always figured “what idiot would try and smuggle drugs through a major airport?”. Clearly however, people in the past have been successful in doing exactly this. If every smuggling mission through Pearson Airport in the past had been unsuccessful, the chances are these recent failed smuggling missions would have never been attempted.

These reports suggest to me there is most likely a good success rate of drug smuggling through Toronto’s main airport. This is an issue, and hopefully the recent failed attempts will discourage at least some people from trying to smuggle drugs through Pearrson International Airport in the future.

pearson

Re: Morning Advantage: Public Transit Is Really the Way to Go

Reading the blog “Morning Advantage: Public Transit Is Really the Way to Go“, it shows the health benefit one receives from taking public transit. When I think about the advantages of public transit, I think about saving the environment and saving money. Never have I looked at the effect it can have on an individuals overall health and wellness.

As shown in this article, public transit can save the average person $9,242 a year. Therefore, why when it helps the environment, saves one money, and improves one’s overall health and wellness does everyone not use it?

I believe the reason is convenience. In today’s world people have demanding schedules and the accessibility of a car allows you to go from place to place whenever you wish. It leaves each individual with a choice:

1) An extra $9,242 dollars in your pocket, more “free” exercise, greater happiness OR 2) You can choose to have optimal convenience, no extra money in your pocket, endure in less exercise, and receive more stress from “road rage”. The combination of less exercise and stress can also lead to an increasing chances of obesity.

Will you choose public transit? Or will the convenience of having a car outweigh all of the pros of public transit?

 

Re: Artizia Spends 10 Million in Rent for New 5th Avenue Store

After reading Briana Mussatto’t article on Aritizia’s new New York 5th Avenue store, it has made me think about the similarities of this marketing approach to Zara’s marketing strategy. Zara’s main form of advertisement is store location. The company  situates it’s stores in the busiest shopping areas in places that “stands out”, Even I fell victim to this. The first time I had heard of Zara was when I was walking on Robson Street in Vancouver a couple years ago and I had noticed the store in a prime location near popular stores like Lululemon and Guess. Seeing this I felt the need to walk inside and check out Zara’s products.

Aritzia has done exactly this on the largest shopping street in the world. This will surely have a huge impact on making the brand go global and in my opinion it is the best way to market a clothing line. Strategic placement of stores has worked on me in the case of Zara and I imagine the Artizia store on 5th avenue will have the same impact on the millions and millions of people who shop on 5th avenue yearly.

 

Aritzia - 5th Avenue

Photograph of the hoarding shot by Mike Boland