Monthly Archives: October 2014

After reading Florence Fong’s post “MLSE Devoted to Canadian Brand“, discussing how CEO Tim Leiweke selected a Canadian sponsor (Canadian Tire) in the place of Rona’s choice of discontinuing its contract with the Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment. By avoiding foreign owned retailers, she discusses Leiweke’s strategy to maintain the interest of the Canadian public and differentiate its company.  Her blog post made me realize the importance of understanding the demographics and psychographics of customer segments, especially in a hockey crazed country like Canada.

For MLSE customers, the choice to stay close to home through Canadian sponsors reiterates an unified country identity and support. The “Canadian” brand associated with hockey has assisted companies with their marketing strategy, as Florence mentioned, however, marketing under the umbrella of “hockey” also requires strategies of differentiation to reach an unique position within the industry. When I read the article Blood, sweat – and tears: Scotiabank shoots at hockey’s softer side , linking many concepts mentioned in Florence’s post, I recognized many points of differences that Scotiabank pursued to maintain the interest of the Canadian public amidst the oversaturated hockey advertisements. They began with market research, assessing the landscape of hockey advertisements and realized that many marketing campaigns were filled with “chiaroscuro shots” of NHL stars, constant reminders of heritage, and dramatic music. Scotiabank established an unique position by using humour to remind customers that they not only sponsored the National Hockey League, but also community hockey teams in Canada. For a more authentic and homely approach, they listened to the feedback of their customer segments, and delivered a mixture of humour, charm and authenticity with their emotive campaigns filled with humour and heart. Professor Norm O’Reilly of Ohio University, specializing in sports marketing and adviser with TrojanOne conducted research and found that “when people connect brands to the values they care about in the causes, events or organizations the brands sponsor, those associations can affect their attitudes deeply”. Sponsors like Scotiabank seek to tie themselves with values that resonate with Canadians, eventually influencing the intent of consumers as well as the affinity to the companies.  Both MLSE and Scotiabank understood their customer segments while used different channels to improve their respective brandings through the common theme of hockey.

See the mesh of emotions and humour delivered as part of the “Fifth Season” in Canada campaign by Scotiabank: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9H8goUvI4t4

 

Source: John Cairns Blog #hockey #sorrynotsorry http://johncairnsblog.wordpress.com/2014/02/22/sorry-all-the-other-sports-hockey-is-the-best-part-of-the-winter-olympics-bar-none/

Works Referenced:

Krashinsky, Susan. “Blood, Sweat – and Tears: Scotiabank Shoots at Hockey’s Softer Side.” The Globe and Mail. The Globe and Mail Inc, 2 Oct. 2014. Web. 30 Oct. 2014. <http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/marketing/blood-sweat-and-tears-scotiabank-shoots-at-hockeys-softer-side/article20898455/>.

Krashinsky, Susan. “Marketing Sponsorships Relying on Blind Faith.” The Globe and Mail. The Globe and Mail Inc, 11 July 2014. Web. 30 Oct. 2014. <http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/marketing/many-marketing-sponsorships-flying-blind-on-effectiveness/article19576464/>.

Today, I discovered Guy Kawasaki’s blog titled “How to Change the World” after seeing it frequently mentioned as a “must read blog”, and I gained some insights from his post on evangelism, a new and unfamiliar concept.  Currently the chief evangelist of Canva, an online graphic design tool, previous chief evangelist of Apple, an advisor to the Motorola business unit of Google and author of a dozen books, Kawasaki explains how a product or service can be “evangelizing” if it can significantly change the world. Despite the word sounding quite religious, evangelizing is creating content and value, and relying on customers to deliver marketing messages to other potential customers by word of mouth, much like “preaching” the brand others. Evangelism marketing seems to be the delivery of value propositions with the mixture of using customer segments to further the customer channels. I never really thought of the idea of “concept marketing” like Kawasaki has at Canva, but I realize that I’ve been exposed to the elements of evangelism marketing, and have been a customer of products from this. Evangelizing marketing makes products more customer friendly, allows for consumers to absorb as much information, and then reaching decisions. According to him, evangelizing a product requires:

1. Making it great, its easier to evangelize deep (many features), integlligent, complete, empowering and elegant products.

2. Positioning your product as a cause, as “causes” change lives and position it to show how it can improve lives. “Evangelists need to seize the moral high ground and transcend the exchange of money for goods and services.”

3. Loving the cause: being an evangelist is a way of life, and you should love what youre promoting.

4. Localizing the pitch: Keep the product pitch simple and straight forward, rather than using flowery language like “paradigm shifting”.

5. Looking for agnostics, ignore atheists: if a person doesn’t “get” your products in 15 minutes, move on

6. Giving people ways to “test drive” the products and let them decide for themselves.

7. As an evangelist, one must know how to give a demonstration of the product. According to Kawasaki, demonstration should be involuntary or second nature.

8. Providing safe and easy first steps by removing all the barriers to access.

9. Ignoring titles and pedigrees, as success as an evangelist requires acceptance of everyone and respectful treatment of all. Here is one of his TEDx talks about innovation and tradition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWv-KoZnpKw

Works Referenced:

Kawasaki, Guy . “How to Change the World.” ‘How to Change the World’. N.p., 29 Apr. 2014. Web. 24 Oct. 2014. <http://blog.guykawasaki.com/#ixzz3H1ureyND>

Cartoon demonstrating some of the unfulfilled claims made by Red Bull, credits to Garrett Montgomery, TheSpreadIt.com.

Recently, energy drink supplier Red Bull faced an US class action lawsuit, agreeing to pay more than $13 millions, after being accused of misleading consumers with false advertising.  The plantiff, Benjamin Careathers, a customer since 2002, argues that Red Bull deceived customers by claiming  ” improvement on concentration and reaction speeds”, and that the slogan, “Red Bull gives you wings”  was in fact false due to the lack of scientific backing. Consequently, Red Bull will reimburse disappointed customers a check for $10 or a voucher for $15 worth of all products, for the past ten years. Personally, I agree with many points made in tdhe INQUISTR article, such as the claim of being gifted “wings” is obviously an overexaggerated slogan accompanied by unrealistic animations. Despite the drinks being advertised on TV, Internet, social media outlets and through celebrity endorsements, one would expect any rational consumer to take everything with a grain of salt. Strangely enough, the plantiff admmitted to continuing to purchase Red Bull over an eleven year, despite it not working for him. Could this be a case of consumer laziness and the failure to critically evaluate and conduct research? We’ve learned of the importance of designing and conducting research on consumers in marketing, so in a case like Red Bull, can we start to hold consumers accountable for their (lack of) research into the products? 

Works Referenced:

Matthews, Toni. “False Ad Settlement: Are Red Bull Customers Victims Or Mentally Lazy?.” The Inquisitr News. N.p., 6 Oct. 2014. Web. 8 Oct. 2014. <http://www.inquisitr.com/1523703/false-advertisement-settlement-red-bull-pay/#7wP5VlUKU0Rhu52B.99>.

Rothman, Max. “Red Bull to Pay $13 Million for False Advertising Settlement.”BevNETcom. BevNET.com, 5 Aug. 2014. Web. 9 Oct. 2014. <http://www.bevnet.com/news/2014/red-bull-to-pay-13-million-for-false-advertising-settlement>.

O’Reilly, Lara. “Red Bull Will Pay $10 To Customers Disappointed The Drink Didn’t Actually Give Them ‘Wings’.” Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 8 Oct. 2014. Web. 8 Oct. 2014. <http://www.businessinsider.com/red-bull-settles-false-advertising-lawsuit-for-13-million-2014-10>.

Often political, social and environmental factors affect the ventures of energy industries, as seen with BC Hydro’s proposed construction of a dam and 1100 MW hydroelectric station on the Peace River in British Columbia, meeting opposition from First Nation chiefs. Chiefs argue that flooding of the valley “would destroy farmland, wildlife habitat, and impair their rights to fish and hunt”. With both parties seeking to protect their interests, BCHydro targeting the growing population, the First Nations concerned about their lifestyles, this brings up a crucial question in economics: Is it possible for choices to be made pursuit of social interest as well as the self interest?

BC Hydro’s proposed Site C

Can there be a compromise satisifying both parties? Ultimately, I think it is inevitable for an unbalanced compromise, mixed with different considerations of the environmental, political (land rights) and social (way of life) factors. Despite the Supreme Court ruling in June that the Crown can only justify infringing on Aboriginal title lands by “demonstrating both a compelling and substantial governmental objective,” and the broader benefits “must not be outweighed by adverse effects on the Aboriginal interest, historically, settling conflicts between the First Nations and resource industry development whilst keeping the interests of First Nations is time consuming and often has unforseen implications.

A deformed white fish caught in Lake Athabasca near Fort Chipewyan, Canadian Press

For example, the Mikisew Cree of Fort Chipwyea thought they would economically benefit from the developement of the oil sands in the Athabasca region; however, unpredictable social and economic consequences like the unusually high rates of cancer and emergence of deformed fish stocks were both unforseen and cost the community more than they had anticipated. Given the unpredictability of the future, only time can determine the implications and correct the imbalances of resolutions.

Works Referenced:

O’Neil, Peter. “First Nation chiefs to stage Site C showdown.”www.vancouversun.com. Post Media, n.d. Web. 5 Oct. 2014. <http://www.vancouversun.com/news/First

“Site C Clean Energy Project.” Site C Clean Energy Project. BC Hydro, n.d. Web. 5 Oct. 2014. <https://www.bchydro.com/energy-in-bc/projects/site_c.html>.