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Over the past few years Mcdonald’s has been making some very significant changes to its marketing strategy. This started when they did a whole rejuvination of the way the restaurant looks and turned from a cheap and plastic look with a few bright colors to a more distinguished and classier look. Recently they did something that quite amazed me. For the entire month of November, Mcdonald’s was giving out free coffe of any size to whomever asked for it. You don’t need to be a math major to know that, just in Canada this amounts to millions and millions of dollars in coffee given away for free through out all of the Mcdonald’s restaurants. This seems like a very interesting promotion initiative to enter the coffee market and start competing with the likes of Starbucks, Tim Horton’s, etc.. The question that comes to mind is, will that huge promotion expense pay-off in the long-run? I think the answer is definately yes because Mcdonald’s is one of the biggest corporations in the world and with the amount of resources it has it would not make such a big mistake. So clearly, They know what they’re doing! And millions of us got to benefit from it as well! Also, I was looking through some other blogs about Mcdonald’s and came across a blog that relates to this whole new way of doing things at Mcdonald’s. Recently at many Mcdonald’s restaurants free wi-fi is also offered.

http://blog.optimum7.com/melissa/marketing-and-advertising/mcdonalds-advertises-their-free-wi-fi.html

As I was watching the fourth season of Mad Men I suddenly came to an unmistakable conclusion. I think it is very probable that the whole series was created as a very long advertisement for the dieing tobacco industry. As we all know, for several decades now, the outright advertisement of cigarettes has been banned in many parts of the world. This made me wonder, is Mad Men an attempt at glorifying smoking? Afterall, the series consists of very sexy indiviudals who chain smoke at virtually every scene. The fact of the matter is that during the time period that this series is supposed to portray, just about everyone smoked cigarettes. In the past, cigarette ads on TV and in magazines have tried to tie in sex appeal and smoking together as one idea as can be seen by the picture I have attached to this post. To me it seems very likely that this same phenomenon is repeating itself in Mad Men.

I use public transportation frequently during the week and I have noticed something very interesting that people have started to do. Back in the good old days when I bussed to high school people on the bus usually kept themselves occupied by reading a book, listening to music, or doodling on their phones. Now people do those same things, BUT instead of books many individuals use a device called the Amazon Kindle to read. It really made me wonder, people have been reading and writing books for many centuries and books have been a key component in the identity of institutions such as libraries and universities but now things are starting to change. The technology exists in such devices as the Amazon Kindle that now there is no need to print each page in a book seperately and use as many resources. Instead, books have become electronic and consumers can purchase them online and download them on to their Kindle. This doesn’t just apply to reading for pleasure; even in universities where traditionally a book, pen, and paper have been essential tools for a student, they are now being replaced with online exams, assignments, and electronic research tools that are making traditional methods obsolete. Although we are still a long way away from closing down our public libraries, a movement is definately in motion to switch from pen and paper to more electronice resources.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mj5Jr0QWNMA

Do material goods and the choices made by consumers define an individual? It is no surprise that most of the buying decisions made by people effects how they think they are perceived by others. Why else would people spend thousands of dollars on designer labels and custom made furniture when they could simply go to Wal-mart as an alternative and spend a fraction of the price for a potentially more practical good? This doesn’t just apply to goods, in addition, people pay a premium for services such as luxury hair salons and massage parlors. Such concepts simply seem to be shallow and against what most of us have learned to be good and bad as children.

The desire to belong, and be wanted is a part of human nature. Therefore it makes sense that people use material goods to enhance their social status and/or to belong to a certain social group. For instance, when a teenager watches a TV ad on Nike in which his/her sports idol is sporting a certain brand of shoes, that individual will want to emulate that and has motivation to go out and make the purchase of that particular brand.

In the following blog: https://blogs.ubc.ca/keithfz/ Keith did a great job of pointing out that particular products aren’t always what people use to belong to social groups. During an immensely popular event such as the World Cup, this particular Nike commercial is not trying to sell a certain product, however it is selling an idea just as Keith pointed out. The main themes are multiculturalism and the use of football idols to appeal to people that this is how these famous football players behave. In summary, people want to be like their idols and in order to do that they adjust their behaviour and their consumer choices.

This morning as I was making my regular one-hour bus ride to UBC I was suddenly hit with the inspirational thought of following my biggest dreams and becoming an entrepreuner. There is no doubt in my mind that a very small percentage of people who attempt to create their own company succeed. Keeping this in mind however, there is still many people who actually achieve their biggest, most unthinkable dreams through hard work, creativity, and perseverence. In essence, us humans only have one life and no matter how cliche it sounds, we need to shape our lives in to what we truly want it to be. Sometimes it feels as though most of us are helpless participants in an endless rat-race. Translation: most people work extremely hard for others, and because of the innate tendancy of being risk aversive, they continue to do so for many years without stepping back and trying to achieve what they have always desired. I have found a huge source of inspiration in self made millionaires such as the founder of Robbie’s. Such people have discovered that they can meet the unfulilled needs and wants of certain segments in society and therefore have become incredibly successful. I believe that everyone has one-of-a-kind excellent ideas for success at certain times in their lives; those individuals who take advantage of these ideas and take risks to achieve are the ones who escape the rat-race.

After Reviewing my past couple of posts and thinking about the world of marketing even further, I noticed a very strong theme in the world of marketing and advertising that cannot be left out of this blog. There are certain needs and desires that the majority of people in this world share. For example sexy models appeal to just about any adult and delicious foods appeals to, well, just about everyone! Over the past week or so I have noticed that it cannot be a coincidence that so many advertisements and marketing campaigns utilize these commonalities of human needs and wants to their advantage. To some it may seem that these companies are taking advantage of human vulnaribilities in this regard, however, it can be viewed in an entirely different manner. Simply, people are given what they want to see or want to have in the form of advertisements in media or through other marketing methods. The use of pop-culture sex icons in the promotion of perfrumes, make-up, clothing etc. is something that is very established in the world of consumerism; however, every once in a while there is a controversial advertisement that highlights this issue. An absolutely prime example of such would be Paris Hilton in a bikini washing a very sexy and expensive car while eating Burger King. The only purpose of this commerical could be to draw the attention of the viwer to the sex icon consuming their product. No where in the ad is there a mention about the product itself. But when everything is said and done this advertisement does more than its job because not only does it draw the attention of the audience but it also creates controversy which sheds even more light on the company. Is this form of marketing ethical??

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0PLjKOOuK8

Mad Men is a television series which is a great example of how the world of marketing and advertising works. The interesting thing about the show is that not only does the main character come up with the best advertising campaigns in the field but also he manages to market himself very well. Don Draper is the definition of a man’s man from the baby boomer era. He is the tall, dark, and handsome fella who always succeeds. The premise of the show is based on the fact that Don knows how the consumer mind works and is not only a master in satisfying his clients with his creative power, but also, he seduces any woman he wants. Almost every character in this show, which is based in the 50s and 60s, is extremely good looking. This only adds to the superficial feel of the show. Mad Men portrays the advertising world as based on appearance, and bottome lines as opposed to ethics or values. In general, the show does an amazing job of shedding light on to the oconsumer and material driven American society in the post war era.

Research in Motion is a prime example of a company for which its marketing and ad campaign are essential in maintaining its top spot in the smartphone arena. Historically, the Canadian based company has had a sustainable competetive advantage because of its unsurpassed security features which made its smartphones ideal for corporate professionals who used its great email capabilities. This along with the fact that it was one of the first phones with a full QWERTY keyboard, blew any competition out of the waters. However, this advantage has recently changed due to strong competition from Apples’s Iphone, and Google-based Android phones. These new platfroms appeal not only to business professionals, but additionally, to the average joe. Blackberry’s new competition out-does it in terms of media features, browsing and social networking. In order to maintain some sort of a sustainable competetive advantage RIM has relied on the one feature which make blackberries stand out, Blackberry Messenger. This instant messaging application allows all Blackberry users to talk with unlimited characters and superior speed to sms. As a result their new advertising campaign is based on bbm.