It’s hard to believe that the school year came to an end so quickly. In terms of the group projects, I could not have asked for a better team to work with throughout this entire course. It was fun and exciting even though the timeframe was tight but we worked extremely well together as a team and in my opinion, did a fantastic job on the video and other assignments.

As mentioned by Professor Tamar earlier in the course, I think that a smaller group does work better and for us, that equates to more bonding as a team and being able to understand each other’s ideas and communication was much more effect as there were only 4 of us in total. I think that the group component of COMM 296 really allowed me to learn a lot about marketing outside of the classroom because I got to share my ideas with others and at the same time learn from my team. We complimented and critiqued each other’s work which resulted in huge improvements in our final project and even though we made many silly mistakes in the first few assignments, we learned from them and continually improve on our work to achieve the best that we can produce.

Most importantly, I realized how difficult it is to analyze and create an effective marketing strategy that will yield positive results. Marketing is not as easy as it seems on the surface (e.g. watching an ad on tv), there are many factors and complications involved behind the scenes to create these powerful and entertaining marketing material that we see on a day-to-day basis. I definitely enjoyed this class and highly recommend that other students enroll in it as well to learn about the world of marketing!

We’ve all seen ads that appeal to a specific target or segment such as baby ads for parents, phones for the technological savvy, household products for housewives, gym equipment for men, toys for little children and the list goes on.

However, what truly qualifies as a global marketing ad? Is it effective? Can it be played in cities all around the world? Taco Bell came out with a new 2013 marketing commercial titled “the world’s most obvious idea”. You can view the video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=koAGOyJ28dM

The ad starts with teenagers eating their new product called the “cool ranch tacos” followed by businessmen in a board meeting and then convenience store owners, news anchors,  soldiers, representatives in global conferences, monks, astronauts, taxi drivers and old people all enjoying and eating their new “cool ranch tacos”.

The new marketing ad that took off like a wildfire garnered over 300,000 views on youtube within 2 weeks, clearly wants the general public to know that fast food is for everyone — the old, the young, white collar and blue collar workers alike. The ad aims to re-position itself and its target market to separate itself from other fast food businesses by showing that they have created a product that is meant for everyone (low – high income).

The commercial seems to employ a undifferentiated marketing strategy as people from all walks of life are seen to be enjoying tacos. The ad also seems to portray an intensive distribution strategy as it shows people from very different and diverse backgrounds (ranging from the urban to suburban, fancy boardrooms to convenience stores and global conferences to jungles) enjoying tacos, explicitly implying that Taco bells are convenient, easy to find and there’s always one near you no matter where you are in the world.

I recently chanced upon this interesting marketing ad “Elevator Murder Experiment” on AdFreak to promote an upcoming movie called Dead Man Down. I’ve never seen anything like this before and it was quite stunning but shocking at the same time. It’s hard to imagine what I’m talking about so I shall start with the marketing video:

The first thing that I thought of from watching the video is the danger(s) that are associated with this one-of-a-kind marketing campaign. Even though the video creators (Viral Marketing Agency Thinkmodo) claimed that “every precaution was taken to ensure the safety of all parties involved”, it’s hard to believe considering that the bystanders/strangers in the video were using fire extinguishers, flowers and bags to attack the actors.

With that said, the marketing campaign was obviously a success with over 4 million views on youtube alone. This form of marketing – which involves strangers and bystanders is relatively new and we can see more and more companies trying this form of bolder marketing campaigns despite the risks associated with it. To viral marketing agencies like Thinkmodo, perhaps the fastest way to get the word out there is through the use of effective social media (like youtube) because of the hundreds of millions of users browsing it daily.

In terms of costs, I also think that it is much cheaper than conventional/traditional forms of advertisements. A budget is used to produce the simple video which involves bystanders in a contained environment and it’s then uploaded to youtube which is completely free. This budget is tiny compared to the millions of dollars needed to air commercials on TV, physical advertisements on public transportation and walkways and door-to-door advertisements.

Here is another video by Thinkmodo to keep you on your feet:

This post is on Iris Zhou’s topic with regards to advertisements/commercials centered on very young children wearing little and skimpy clothes (underwear and swimwear).

I want to bring light to this topic because I find it really intriguing and interesting thing that people in some cultures actually find these kind of commercials are “correct” and there is nothing “ethically wrong” with young children dressed in skimpy wear.

Is it appropriate for a 10-year old model to be “reclining seductively in stilettos and evening gowns and more makeup and jewelry than anyone under the age of 30 should be wearing” and showcased on one of the most-read magazines in the world, Vogue?

Luis Paredes, the publisher of the Lingerie Journal said that while Americans may be shocked, the line of clothing wouldn’t cause a ripple in Europe, reported NY.

This huge discrepancy in different views on children in lingerie clearly shows that the “Cultural” and “Social” aspects from CDSTEP are crucial to a company’s marketing decisions as some forms of advertisements may be completely acceptable certain areas and completely un-acceptable in other areas. It may seem like a simple marketing campaign to attract parents to purchase beautiful clothing for their young children but further studies should be carried out to determine the real impact on our society. Pictures like these encourage Pedophiles to carry out illegal activities and shift the unknowing consumer towards a society that might be potentially dangerous and harmful to young children.

Our world as we know it is very inter-connected, especially with Social Media and websites like Youtube where millions of people around the world can upload and view videos with a few clicks of the mouse. Companies that are engaging in marketing have to now not only consider the Culture of the Continent, Country and City but also have to take into account Cultures in different regions around the world to prevent incidents like these from happening.

I wanted to talk about marketing campaigns that have been banned because I find it interesting and intriguing as to why large multi-national companies spend thousands if not millions on advertising only to find out that they are not allowed to air it. It’s interesting because TV commercial regulators such as the FCC (United States) have specific guidelines on their websites for companies to follow. Even with guidelines posted, many companies still fail to adhere to the minimum requirements and end up having their commercials banned from public tv.

One of the more interesting observations I found was with the Swedish Company IKEA. IKEA has a long history of banned commercial advertisements. The banned advertisements are known to be notoriously funny and exciting but it is unfortunate that they were not allowed to be aired.

So, why do companies decide to push the limits of those regulations and try for bold commercials outside the box? It is easy to note that viewership for banned commercials are, in most cases, much higher than commercials that are not banned. So it’s safe to say that these commercials are a lot more appealing and noticeable to the public, which is their intended purpose. However, going forward, companies have to be aware and take into account the guidelines and at the same time ensure that their commercials are appealing and safe for the general public.

One of the more popular banned commercial from IKEA circulating on the internet:

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

Hi everyone,

I would like to talk about a new term that I just learned called “Greenwashing“. The definition of “Greenwashing” is “a form of spin in which green PR or green marketing is deceptively used to promote the perception that an organization’s aims and policies are environmentally friendly. Whether it is to increase profits or gain political support, greenwashing may be used to manipulate popular opinion to support otherwise questionable aims.”

There is a huge trend taking place in the world right now, many consumers are favoring companies that have “Green initiatives” and/or are environmentally friendly. Thus new trend has led to many companies, both big and small, to start green initiatives and work towards being a more environmentally friendly company. However, there are no fixed guidelines or laws to define a company as “Green” and there is no regulation body that ensures and enforces a company’s attempt to become green. So we end up with a big problem of many companies claiming that they are “green” when in actual fact, they are not.

“Public utilities spent 300 million dollars advertising themselves as clean green companies. This was eight times more than the money they spent on pollution reduction research.” It’s intriguing to find that companies are spending tons of money on advertising to prove to the public and media on how “environmentally friendly” they are instead of using the funds to actually reduce pollution and other initiatives. I find that in terms of marketing in the 21st century, it has become “what people think you do” instead of “what you do” in order to be successful in your marketing campaigns.

I found this short clip on Greenwashing.

Going forward, Companies will continue to push themselves harder and market themselves as “Green” to gain reputation and increase their bottom line. I think that it is time for governments to step in and regulate this segment of the market, to ensure that companies are doing as they say and that their “Green initiatives” really actually do help the environment instead of harming it. This website is one of the first in the world that measures how “green” a company’s “green initiative” is.

(Source)

Hello everyone,

I am very excited to begin this marketing course as marketing is a very important tool in our current business environment. I would like to learn as much as I can from this course and hopefully become a master at marketing.

Cheers,