During term 2, I am pleased to say that our grouped worked relatively well overall. Although there were moments where we could of pre-planned a bit earlier, we managed to complete everything within the due date. Having to complete the first two assignments last minute, we wanted to ensure that we completed assignment 3 well before the due date.

Regardless, I have reason to believe that I enjoyed the marketing assignment 3 the most. Firstly, this assignment is more flexible. There were a number ways and concepts we could have applied in the video, which delivers, and communicates the effectiveness of our company’s marketing mix. It allows us to apply some form of creativity while being professional simultaneously. Secondly, is that we escaped having to present the actual content, and knowing my group well enough for most of term 2, I’m pretty sure they were relieved about that as well.

Overall I thought the assignments played an important role in this course, not only did they indirectly help you catch up with the content you were suppose know a while ago. But they also give you the opportunity to apply them with real life examples; in our case it was Zara. It enhances the overall learning experience and the value gained by completing these assignments far exceeds the simple act reading slides and the textbook. Thank for everything Tamar!

Referring back to Quins blog about Enbridge’s’ illusive marketing strategy, I would like to share my thoughts on this issue. Without a doubt, having Enbridge provide unrealistic figures to the government and the general public raised a couple of concerns for everybody. However, concluding it as being an un-ethical act would be questionable in my opinion.

It seems to me that Enbridge has underestimated the power of its external stakeholders (environmentalists, government ie.). This is a common mistake most companies encounter during daily operations, and the consequences are rather high as it could affect their brand loyalty as well as image. Perhaps Enbridge were too concerned with pleasing their shareholders, senior management that they simply neglected their external stakeholders – After all, Enbridge did only provide quantitative benefits from an economical prospective.

To conclude about what Enbridge did, as being un-ethical, is rather rash. If you look at the bigger picture, Enbridge simply failed to communicate the added value of this project over the associated risks to the public. It would have been a lot better, If they did provide informative environmental risks associated this project along with proper short term and long-term responses if the unfavorable event were to occur. In the end, it isn’t a question whether or not this was ethical; it was whether Enbridge truly understood the interests of its external stakeholders. In this case, they didn’t.

This external blog post mentioned a story where a server and a manager at a chili restaurant committed themselves into solving little problem regarding an autistic 7 – year old girl. Long story short, the little girl was unsatisfied with her cheeseburger because it appeared to be “broken” as it was cut in half. The server, Lauren, took some time to figure what the problem was and decided to solve this issue. In the end, she managed to get the whole restaurant involved in order to bring a non-broken cheeseburger to this young autistic girl. When this young girl received the new burger, she was so happy; her sister took a photo of her kissing the new burger and posted it on Facebook along with the touching story. This random act of kindness managed to get quite a positive publicity stunt as the Facebook post got up to 40 000 comments with nearly up to a million likes.

Overall, there were two things that really struck me about this blog post. Firstly, I never really knew that social media such as Facebook could play a huge role to promote free advertising for a particular company. In this case, chili restaurant managed to achieve up to nearly one million likes. This in turn brings huge intangible benefits to the company such as improvement towards public relations. Secondly, having this occurred due to one small act of random kindness made me re-evaluate the power of customer service and satisfaction. I couldn’t cease to stop thinking that all this had occurred because of one little act of doing.

I’m always fascinated when I think about how Zara grew into becoming one of the largest fashion retailer companies without the need to implement above the line promotion. Anyone would have agreed that it is incredibly rare to find a Zara poster and or commercial ever. On top of that, you rarely see any logos on their products.  From personal experience, their customer service is mediocre, and there’s rarely any personal selling. Why is this?

Back in Hong Kong, every Zara store I encountered was packed with customers. It makes me wonder, were Zara products virtually advertising itself? Are people doing it simply because they know it is the only way to keep them updated on new or upcoming products? Could the affordable price be also the reason for this as well?

I for one am a rather frequent customer of Zara, not because of price, or because of its “fast fashion” ideology but because they don’t actually place a logo on their products. This makes it seem that Zara doesn’t really associate their products with a particular life-style (ie like a Nike check-mark). Instead, Zara allows their customers to create their own lifestyle through their products; the lifestyle of uniqueness.  Zara allows you to compile a number of cloths, and stylize it in your own particular liking. It is as if you are not associated with anything but yourself when you buy Zara products. I wonder if I am the only one who thinks this way but that is the exact reason why I remain loyal to Zara.

Recently, a game known as War Z has been released through steam, an online platform that delivers a variety of games straight to anyone’s computer. Though War Z has been a huge hit within the global gaming community, many consumers were outraged due false advertising implemented by Hammer point Interactive, the developers of War Z. Many features that the game promised such as a simple friends list seemed to be missing and certain game modes were still underdevelopment.

It was extremely sad to see a company take advantage of false advertising to simply gain profits. It is plain unethical and would bring forth consequences. In my personal opinion, I can guarantee that War Z would be regretting this very decision in making false claims. Why? Well, because their previous inconsiderate actions has caused them to lose one of their retailers, Steam. With their incomplete product being stripped off of Steam, Hammer point Interactive would lose a lot of potential sales. In addition to that, their supply chain has been weakened. One would have to wonder whether or not hammerpoint’s other retailers would do the same thing that Steam did. If this were to be true, then Hammerpoint’s distribution process would crumble.

In order for Hammerpoint to redeem itself after such an incident, It is recommended that they should seriously improve in their PR and address the public with an apology. They will need to ensure the features that promised were being implemented into the game. Finally, it is best for Hammerpoint to include compensation to their consumers for the mistakes they have made to reduce buyer’s remorse.

Advertisements have become one of the central cores of marketing. Currently, the general population might agree that the definition of advertisements is a form of promoting awareness to the general public of a particular product or service. However, marketers have found a new strategic use for advertising through the use of “subliminal messages”. For those who do not know what that term means, subliminal messages are messages that are embedded in advertisements and are designed to carry a message to the sub-conscious mind without the viewer noticing.

This article brings up one good example of a theatre located in New Jersey who implemented a single subliminal message with words containing “Drink Coca – Cola” and “Eat popcorn” within a fraction of a second while the movie was playing (note that viewers cannot spot this image). As a result after 6 months, the theatre experienced increased sales in both Coke and popcorn. Though however, is this “marketing strategy” really ethical?

From my own prospective, the use of subliminal messages within advisements is completely unethical. There are of course many reasons why to support this claim; the obvious one would be that it stripes away consumer choice. Anybody can choose to ignore all forms of advertisements despite after being exposed to it, however, subliminal messaging alleviates this issue due to its’ unnoticeable aspect. Nobody can tell for sure whether or not they are being affected or influenced by such a method.

In addition, would this have an affect to our youth population as they are constantly exposed to such advertisements?

Image taken from Social Puma

There are many posters and commercials out there that contain subliminal messages about sex. Could this also be an issue as well? Will it have an effect on human behavior? Could it possibly change our morals and values?

Citations

“Do Subliminal Messages Work?” Do Subliminal Messages Work & How Will It Benefit Me? N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Jan. 2013. <http://www.instantsubliminal.com/subliminal messages.html>.

A fellow class-mate of mine, Jae Min Kim wondered about the possibilities of apples future, without the all star Steve jobs here to share off his innovative ideas. Because of this, it is hard to determine how apple will operate, considering that their main innovator has passed away at the age of 56.

In my opinion, in the short-term, the strong costumer loyalty that Steve Jobs “built” will help Apple continue to lead in the market through their current sales, especially with the new release of the I-phone S4 etc.

On the contrary, I do not have much confidence, in the long-term scale of Apple’s future. The success of this business was solely dependant (and I say this boldly) due to Steve Job’s amazing creation and ideas. As he is no longer with us, he can no longer provide “guidance” or “direction” for this company through the use of his creations: creating detrimental effects. Similar effects occurred when Apple fired Steve Jobs during the early years: The moment he left the office, Apple started to fall in the market as stocks started to drop.

That being said, Apple will have a lot of competition as other rivals are now starting to catch up; hence, the following years for Apple, will be rather interesting in regards to whether they will continue to prosper and invent new creations, or perhaps experience a downfall.

Regarding towards GM’s failing advert, Nicola Lam’s Blog concurred that GM was forced to recall their ad after it received a negative press because GM chose not to show awareness for sustainability.

To an extent, this might be true, as some cyclers or college students would much rather prefer to use a bicycle to gain a more sustainable life style. In this case, yes, customers might be appalled by this particular ad.

However, I believe that the main root that caused this advertising disaster is that GM chose to apply a co-ordinated marketing strategy by implying a more “competitive” type of advertisement. As such, GM directly compares their goods (cars) to those of their rivals (bike). In turn, GM, created a humiliating nature towards consumers who uses a bike.

Such advertisements can harm the business image severely, and like in GM’s case, could destroy brand loyalty: A position that GM would not want to be in at this given time.

GM should approach to a more effective, and safer type of advertising, for example a more persuasive approach rather than the competitive approach of advertising. That way, it overall protects the brand image of GM.

Citations

Cycling: Hot or Not?

http://www.gelatobaby.com/2011/10/12/gm-backpedals-on-anti-bike-ad/

Shiv Singh, the global head of digital for PepsiCo Beverages, discussed on an external blog that there will be three major changes in the digital advertising world – (1) The value placed on advertisements will change with the account for engagement, (2) the methodology of the advertisements will be redesigned, (3) and the location-aware technologies will imply a higher degree of consumer engagement.

Television Ad’s are considered an above-the-line promotion, and has been going for the last 30 years, and still remains effective in-terms of providing promotion and brand awareness. Traditionally, TV ad’s focused on “pushing” their messages towards customers, where as now, Companies take advantage in this shift in digital platform where they can attract or other wise “pull” their costumer towards their message.

From a marketing prospective, as long as the digital media progresses, companies can fully utilize this change in digital media to formulate a “corporate” type of advertising as it promotes it’s overall image, story, and culture. As such, it will gain the engagement, and interaction from the customer, drawing their attention benefiting the company’s brand as a whole, significantly.

Citations

Singh, Shiv. “TV Ads’ New Digital Role.” Harvard Business Review. 10 Nov. 2011. Web. 25 Nov. 2011. <http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/11/the_new_role_of_television_adv.html>.

Asda, a supermarket giant, initiated a price war by reducing it’s gas prices to their lowest. It wasn’t until later that other competitors of Asda, such as Sainsbury, recognized this, and quickly announced it’s own price cuts towards the public: building stronger tension between these two big super markets.

A pricing war can assist competitiveness in the short term but it is considered detrimental in long-term competitiveness. Issues arising from the war can include destruction of customer loyalty – new customers you gain can cannot be retained and you lose existing customers; whilst war may force some efficiencies and cost savings in the manufacturing/selling process, longer term profitability is weakened as the ability to raise prices after the war will likely be curtailed; and most of all, nobody benefits.

In case of a price-war, response is key.  As such companies have to “sweeten” the offering – price maybe a component but give focus to additional free extras, greater trade in values that appear to be a great benefit but do not cost as much. For example, in the case of a car – minimum trade in amount, pay registration; give 6 months free petrol, upgraded sound system, etc.  Looks good but it is difficult for buyers to actually price as people look at retail value [price in shops that includes margin] and everybody has different motivations in respect to benefits offered.

Citations

Massey, Ray. “Asda Sparks Price War by Slashing Pump Prices to Lowest Level since February.” Mail Online. 4 Nov. 2011. Web. 25 Nov. 2011. <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2057671/Asda-sparks-price-war-slashing-pump-prices-lowest-level-February.html>.