Reading this blog post from “The Infleuntial Marketing Blog,” I thought back to our class on product strategy and how to accelerate the rate of adoption. This post talks about offering customers free trials, samples and generous return/exchange policies. Here, this concept of an “expiration date” is geared towards software products such as mobile apps and games. I think it is a great idea to offer a limited amount of levels or plays instead of a “lite” version that never expires. The reason being, once the trial period expires, customers are more likely to go and purchase the full-version of the game if they really liked what they experienced during the trial version. Free trials are a great way to let the public know about a company’s products, but if the trial version never expires, many customers will continue to use the trial and be less inclined to purchase the real thing.

Another idea from this post is to extend the free trial period. I think this is a great way to speed up the rate of adoption for a product because by reminding customers that their free trial is almost over and offering them an extension (even if it is a short extension) on the free trial, it will show customers that you care about them. This trial extension will give customers more time to evaluate your product and further increase the chances of them adopting your product.

Lastly, with regards to return and exchange policies, I think it is a good idea to have a relatively long time frame in which customers are allowed to bring the product back for a refund or an exchange. This will give producers insight on whether or not their product is liked by consumers as well as the problems or glitches associated with the product. Generous return and exchange policies definitely increase customer loyalty and strengthen brand image because you are giving your customers a promise of quality and assurance and that in itself ties back to the heart of marketing – value creation for customers.

I have to admit, after all this hype about the Super Bowl, especially the commercials aired up to and during the game, I decided to check some of them out, just to see what the hype was all about. From the myriad of car commercials to beer commercials, it was obvious to see that the majority of these commercials were targeted towards men. However, there was one commercial that really stood out for me; in fact, I even teared up a little while I was watching it.

Budweiser’s “The Brotherhood” commercial, unlike most other commercials which tried to come across as “funny” or “cool,” was very sentimental and humorous in a subtle way. It begins with a man tending to a very adorable Clydesdale foal and it shows the horse’s growth and attachment to its owner until it gets drafted away by Budweiser. I couldn’t resist shedding a few tears when I saw the horse parting with its owner. Then, it fast forwards to three years later where the man and the horse have a reunion. The commercial ends with Budweiser telling viewers to tweet at them if they want to help name the baby Clydesdale shown in the ad. Not only is this commercial well-made in the sense that it has a good storyline, it also makes good use of social media as a means of advertising because they are using Twitter to further engage customers with their brand.

I really liked this commercial because it’s different from the typical Super Bowl commercial where the ad is mainly targeted towards men and sends across the message “if you use our product, you will be popular among the ladies.” Rather, this commercial seems like it is targeted towards a wider audience – the growing female audience. This classic rearing-to-separation-to reunion story of the Clydesdale and its owner was deeply touching for me and changed my opinion about Super Bowl ads for the better.