Pranita Iyer's Blog

The one man who inspires me the most is Mahatma Gandhi. There are many reasons why he is so inspiring to me. He lived his life as an ethically strong man, and when he passed away he had no regrets. It is my hope, that I can take some of the things I learned from him and put them to use in my own life. He gave new meaning to silent strength. without any violence, he managed to fight one of the biggest colonial powers of the time. This silent strength is something i hope to emulate through my journey in the professional world.
For those of you who would like to learn more about him here is a trailer of a movie about his life:

Since september of 2010, I have been attending comm 299 at UBC….for the most part i went into the course thinking that it was a one credit course that would not have any effect on my life and that it was a major waste of time and money…But I was wrong!

During the course of the 2010/2011 academic year I learned many things in all of my courses, but the one course that really pushed me to the limits was comm 299. It encouraged me to think outside the box, and to discover who I am exactly. I can’t say that it has helped me define myself completely but it has definitely put me on the track to figuring out who I am as well as giving me the skills to communicate myself to other people. Here are few of the major lessons I learned in comm 299:

• BE YOURSELF: Be yourself! isn’t that kind of a weird thing to do….aren’t you always yourself? I learned in this class that this is not true. In situations where I am flustered, or where I am around a group of strangers, I unconsciously try to change my behaviours to what I think will best suit the dynamics of the group.  This course taught me to have a better control over my feelings and behaviours so that when I do meet new people or employers, they have the chance to see me for who I am instead of a nervous and undefined persona.
• BUILD YOUR BRAND: It is important for you to know who you are, because if you are unable to define yourself you will not be able to communicate your skills and abilities appropriately. This will in turn  make you more attractive to friends and potential employers. Considering that coming out of the Sauder school of business, all of your colleagues will have the same credentials you have, the ability to communicate your credentials and what makes you special is the key to a sustainable competitive advantage. This means that spending quite a few hours perfecting your resumes and cover letters are the norm and not the exception. In order to succeed, you need to invest the time in building your brand
• PICTURING THEM IN THEIR UNDERWEAR DOESN’T WORK (:P): The only way to perfect your public speaking skills is to practice! practice! practice! There are few people who can go up to a stage without preparing a speech and do it well. But at the same time, beware of over practicing because giving a robotic speech is just as bad as giving an unrehearsed one.
• PUT YOURSELF OUT THERE!: This is pretty self explanatory. Putting yourself out there by getting involved in clubs and extracurricular activities is the best way to meet and connect with people. More importantly, it is the gateway to making your mark in this world, because the networking and the skills you gain give you more opportunities to succeed.

Surprisingly, comm 299 has been the hardest course of my year even though it is worth less credits, and has also been the one that has given me the biggest bang for the buck.  The journey to discovering myself will not end for a while, but I can say with the utmost confidence that this class has given me all the tools required to successfully complete that journey. Lastly, here is a funny video…

Recently,I read a Blog called Shameless AAHdvertising (Author: Lily Leung), and was particularly captivated by a series of tampon commercials.

To see the blog you can go to this link: http://shamelessahhdvertising.blogspot.com/

And just to make things a little easy on my dear loyal readers, I have posted the ads below:

Lily Leung somehow managed to know exactly what I was thinking. She said: “30 seconds into one of the videos, and you may think it’s a spoof of tampon ads, but these two are ACTUAL, LEGIT commercials. U by Kotex is quite ingenious for such creations, and it is apparent that they poke fun of the typical tampon commercials that feature dancing girls, pink colour, and butterflies.The previous era of tampon ads utilize euphemism, so to speak, because feminine products and the topic of the menstrual cycle in everyday conservations is often tabooed.”

I completely agree with the statement above. In the past, advertisements have always had to use euphemisms to refer to a female’s monthly PERIOD (haha…bet I made you uncomfortable :D). This is another great examples of how cultural norms, and consequently the set of acceptable behaviours affect and limit a marketing campaign. They act as silent censors which prevent and even punish (by decreasing sales) any company that dares to break those unsaid rules. This is also an example of how an advertising campaign can lead the movement to breaking/abolishing those rules.

Kotex’s ads bring to light an important social cause and they say it loud and clear: “GIRLS SHOULD NOT BE ASHAMED OF TALKING ABOUT THEIR PERIODS”. They have managed to connect with thousands of people who feel the same way. They have provided these people with the encouragement to speak out and thus have created a following of loyal and thankful customers. And they manage dto do it in a humourous manner. Their ideas are truly commendable.

Well ladies and gentlemen….exam season has started and there will not be many future posts. For those who read my blog, thank you so much and it has really been a blast.

Good  luck with finals!!

<3 Yours truly,

Pranita Iyer

An evoked set comprises the alternative brands or stores that the consumer states he or she would consider when making a purchase decision. This is the formal definition of an evoked set that I got from the textbook. But all it is is basically whether or not a consumer thinks about your product(assuming that you are the producer of a product) when choosing what to buy. This is the “goal” for marketers, because once you get into a consumer’s mind it becomes easy to sell your product. The evoked set also has important connections to psychographic segmentation and brand image. A blog that I found (Ishita Parekh’s blog) had an interesting post about brand image.

To visit the blog click here:

https://blogs.ubc.ca/pishita/

And to make your life a little easier I have also posted the video from the blog below:

This is a great example of why brand image is so important. And it goes to show just how important psychographic segmentation is. If someone had an iPhone they immediately have a greater sense of pride-this is similar to having a starbucks coffee or a really cool laptop etc. But my question is: even though your product is in someone’s evoked set, if your product fails to deliver over time(I am thinking about the issues with the iPhone 4’s antenna in this case) , is it possible that the consumer will remove your product from their evoked sets??

After much thought and discussion a few friends, I realized that the answer to the above question is: NO! This is because the evoked set has positive and negative sections. If your product fails to deliver over time, it would simply move over to the negative section of a consumer’s evoked set. This shows that getting into a consumer’s evoked set is not always the goal; on the contrary the goal is to get into the CORRECT section of the evoked set.

What are your thoughts?? opinions??

Good luck on finals!!! 😀

Love

XOXO Pranita <3

OOPs! Made a mistake: I am confusing this with the retrieval set, which is the evoked set PLUS the UNacceptable brands that they can recall but will not consider. Thus if the company messes up enough times they will move OUT of the evoked set  and will still stay in the retrieval set but will be an unacceptable brand.

Diesel’s “Be Stupid” ads are probably the smartest ads I have seen in a while.

The way they use a human being’s psyche is amazing. Everyone knows that sometimes, reverse psychology is the best way to get someone to do what you want. And DIESEL makes ample use of that tool in these advertisements. But there are many problems that this marketer would have considered before putting these ads out in public:

Be Stupid:

1) Stupid is a bad word! at least that’s what everyone was taught in kindergarten right? Be nice and respectful to everyone, and you will have lots of friends. But this marketer used the word ‘stupid’ and still managed to attract a lot of customers? How did he manage to get so many friends by being offensive? In this case, we need to consider their target market. The people who use diesel are mostly the ‘trucker’ types. These consumers have a very high tolerance level for swear words. So for them, this ad was more funny than it was offensive.

2) They used a very “cool” sounding song to attract a lot of attention. This has two effects: First it is an annoying jingle that you will never get out of your head(refer to previous blog for more on this). And, secondly they manage to give the whole advertisement a fun- feel. The video very closely resembles a cartoon, with bold/graphic images. They are encouraging viewers to take this advertisement lightly and not think about things too seriously. Thus they manage to soften the effect of offensive words, and indeed managed to make consumers forget about its offensiveness.

3) The last consideration relates back to the target market. Since they know that their main consumer is an adult, they used very adult images: partial nudity, sex etc.

Comments please! What are you thoughts? do you think I am wrong? right? Is there anything I missed?

Love,

Pranita Iyer

P.S: Exams are almost coming aaah! try checking back on a few of my blogs if you want a fun review of some key marketing theories.

What makes an ad campaign successful? What is the final goal of any promotional campaigns? What is the point of spending a huge sum of money with no definite return to the investment? Attracting customers of course!

When a company starts a promotional campaign, is main goal is to make itself stand out from its competitors. It wants to make sure that even if the customer does not buy the product, they will remember the company name A.K.A the company wants to get into the customers’ evoked sets. Here are some tools that companies use to ensure the success of the aforesaid goal:

• Repeating their name many times within a short period of time (Ex: in a 2 minute  ad a company will say their name probably 10 times or more)

• Using cute gimmicks or mascots (ex: Koodo’s wrestler or Geico’s gecko)

• Joking about social issues or using them to make a point about your own company  (ex: Joanna Krupa posed naked with a cross for a controversial PETA advertisement in 2009. This ad used the religion as a tool to promote adoption of pets. )http://s.buzzfed.com/static/imagebuzz/terminal01/2009/12/2/12/joanna-krupa-naked-crucifix-ad-for-peta-19792-1259775640-7.jpg

• SEX SELLS!!! Many companies try to promote the image that using their product will make you  sexy and more attractive (ex: There are many AXE commercials that use this tool)

• An insufferable jingle that will be stuck in your mind forever. One that you cannot forget even if you tried (ex: “1- 800 – 800 – 8553 SAFE AUTO!” , “M’m M’m Good” (Campbells) etc.)

There are many examples of times when using these tactics can actually get your advertisement banned. This shows that it is not possible to mass market to more one country using one advertisement, because different countries/cultures will have different reactions  to controversial issues. Here are a few examples of controversial advertisements :

What are your opinions on these ads?? Comment Pleease! 😀

Of the many segmentation methods, psychographic segmentation is the one that involves how consumers actually describe themselves. It speaks to the many needs and wants of a customer and connects with them on a personal level. It connects to their beliefs, self-values, self-concepts and lifestyles. Thus making it one of the most powerful methods of dividing up the market. A group’s culture has many uses for marketing since the group’s unique culture often defines the values and beliefs of those who belong to the group. For, example, Arnold Schwarzenegger did a few commercials for a Japanese  beer company. Check them out 😀 :

Now for most of us, those commercials are extremely cheesy, but for some reason they were extremely popular in Japan when they first came out in the ’90’s. This is an example of how cultural differences can affect how you connect with your consumer. In this example there are two factors that create cultural differences:

1) Time: These ads are from the 1990’s so its not surprising that they do not connect with the modern youth of today

2) Asian vs. Canadian culture: These are Japanese ads and given the differences between western and eastern culture, the advertisements have a hard time appealing to both audiences.

What are some other examples of cultural differences that would give rise to the need for different marketing strategies? Please leave comments!! I would love to hear from you 🙂

Marketing strategies are some of the trickiest theories to learn and remember in marketing. Lucky for you, my dear loyal readers, I have created a simple and easy way to remember them.

1) Market penetration strategy: Suppose that you have a booth at the flea market selling charms and you are the only one in the entire market with that product. Then suppose that one day your nemesis Bob walks in and sets up a stall next to you and duplicates exactly what you sell: he just penetrated your market and stole some of your current customers……and part of your market share…the nerve of him!

2) Market development strategy: Suppose to make up for the lost revenues due to bob you start selling your charms not just to teenagers with cell-phones but to old people to…charms for canes! charms for walkers!….you just sold your current product to a new market….Good job smartypants! 😀

3) Product development strategy: Suppose Bob copies you again!! ( you should really do something about him! he keeps stealing your customers 🙁 ) Then you decide  that along with your normal stock of charms you are going to sell sell mini-flashlights that you can hang from your cellphone….Charmlights!!! You just sold a new product to your existing customers and probably stole back some customers from Bob…..haha!!! lets see if Bob can beat that!

4) Diversification strategy: Bob did it again!! You get so annoyed by him that you decide to move to Antarctica and you set up your stand outside your new ice-house. Business is going great since there is no one else like you…..you are selling to a new market and have introduced a new product to that market…..you just diversified!

And here is an advertisement for Johnson’s baby oil from the 1970’s. Try to think of which marketing strategy Johnson’s is using in the advertisement. And post your opinion in the comments.

Well folks,
Midterm season is almost over…..and you know what that means: Part TIME!!!…… not! lol :)….its more of a signal that finals are coming. So here’s what I am going to do for you. I will show you a few cool relaxation products to help you with the stress and help you with a little marketing at the same time.

Go to the following website and check out their products:
http://www.relaxusonline.com/Powerful_Massager_s/65.htm

And while you are looking through them try to think about the 4 P’s : Product(creating value), Place(distribution), Price(capturing value), Promotion(communicating value)
More specifically try to explain whether/how they have managed to accomplish all the tasks in the brackets. Also what stage of market growth are they in? mature? introduction? or are they innovators?

Good luck to everyone who still has midterms!!
Goodnight. Sleep Tight. Don’t let the bedbugs bite 😛

Google’s latest quarterly results have beaten market expectations. They posted a 32% rise in profits says BBC news. They also said that their previous quarterly results had fallen behind wall street’s estimated results back in July. This raised many questions about google’s decisions in regards to spending on growing their business.

But google said “”Going forward, we remain committed to aggressive investment in both our people and our products as we pursue an innovation agenda.” Google was not deterred by their results in the second quarter and had enough faith to not only continue on with their plans, but to put even more money into advertising and growth. I guess this is more of an OB question than a Marketing question but at what point should google stop putting money into advertising? How many times do they have to fail before they give up? Do you ever have a guarantee that the benefits outweigh the costs of marketing?

If you want to read the article go to this site:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11545463

On another note here’s a funny video about marketing. Think about  this while you are watching: is it ever enough to just advertise if your product can’t actually deliver? If the final goal of marketing is to get loyal customers….would PC be successful??