Rachael Sawer

I don’t know if any of you have noticed but nowadays it seems that the changing of the seasons is basically decided by Starbucks.  I dont know why its like this but over the years Starbucks became a symbol of the changing seasons.  When fall rolls around they have their signature season drinks, then christmas, spring and finally summer!  I think Starbucks is onto an intelligent marketing scheme when it comes to distributing limited time only products.  Consumers start associating the changing seasons with Starbucks’ calendar and therefore they are constantly in the minds of their target market consumers.

Personally, there are many signs that the holiday season is starting such as cold weather, snow, and the department store displays but I think the best indicator would have to be the Starbucks Christmas cup.  The majority of people I know start to accept its beginning to look like Christmas when they go for their coffee and Starbucks has their signature cups.  I think Starbucks’ limited time products and christmas cups are an essential part of their marketing strategy that gives them a sustainable competitive advantage over their competitors.  Its hard to associate your company with the changing seasons but somehow Starbucks has managed to do that and for years to come the indicator that Christmas is here will continue to be the Starbucks Holiday Cup.

I was recently reading through my group mate Pheobe Chen’s blog and I came a cross an interesting post from a couple of weeks ago. She was talking about the launch of the Lanvin for H&M line exclusively for H&M. I found it an odd coincidence that the same time last year H&M launched its Jimmy Choo for H&M line. Is H&M onto something?

Today there are dozens of high-end designers who are creating outfits exclusively for consumers with higher incomes excluding the average consumer. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing because some business and companies make their money by selling luxury products because owning one of their products gives the consumer some sort of “status”. But on the other hand, it would be nice as an average consumer to be able to benefit from the creative genius of famous designers. I think H&M is onto a smart idea by partnering with such designers as Lanvin and Jimmy Choo. For one, H&M is expanding their consumer base by bringing in consumers that wouldn’t normally shop at H&M because they view it as an average store. On the other side of the equation, Lanvin and Jimmy Choo are reaching out to a whole different target market while still reamaining an exclusive a brand keeping up with their Chanel and Dolce&Gabanna counterparts.

I’m excited about the launch and can’t wait to go to H&M and do a little christmas shopping! 🙂

Ever since the introduction of the internet the world changed.  The world wide web opened doors that no one would have thought was possible.  Slowly but surely people started getting the hang of navigating their way through endless websites, search engines, blogs, and such therefore changing the business world forever.  Today more and more companies are turning towards the internet to market themselves and make it easier for consumers to buy their products or services.  Just today I was reading a blog by the Canadian Marketing Blog where they talk about the new concept of E-Commerce.

More and more consumers are switching to the internet and shopping online because it is more convenient than actually making their way to the store.  More and more businesses are capitalizing on this concept and now the E-Commerce community is booming.  Through popular websites such as Facebook and Twitter companies are advertising themselves and gaining a bigger target market of people that dont have enough time to go out to the stores.  I think E-Commerce is the way of the future and that all companies should start becoming involved if they want to remain competitive in their market.

So I was watching TV yesterday since I know have free time after all those midterms and there was a commercial that was repeatedly played throughout my show.  I don’t know if you have seen it but its the new PowerSmart ad by BC Hydro. Thes ads are pretty funny even though they are exagerated, but they are addressing for the most part what people tend to do, to a less extreme extent. 

Going green and protecting the environment is one of the key issues around the world because we are all trying to save our planet.  It’s interesting how BC Hydro is addressing this idea by using marketing techniques to advertise the idea of  being energy efficient.  Although the events displayed on the advertisement are overexagerated, it makes the commercial humourous and catches the attention of consumers that are watching TV. 

Its easy to do little things to help save the planet like turning of lights when not in the room or turning off the tap when you’re not using it and I feel this commercial reinforces the fact that it’s easy to be green. 

This past year Toyota has been in the news because they had to recall a bunch of their cars.  Toyota owners were getting in their cars and driving but not being able to break since the breaks had been malfuntctioning.  After this fiasco people stopped buying Toyotas because it had gained the reputation of an unsafe car.

Lately though many commercials have come out that screams Toyota wants to regain its reputation as a safe brand of cars.  They are trying to reposition themselves in order to minimize postpurchase dissonance, which in this case is the uncertainty of whether the car will malfunction or not.  In their most recent commercial they directly identied consumers’ main concern about safety by adding a new promotion.  Now every Toyota comes with 24hr roadside assistance wherever they are in addition to giving the driver “peace of mind” while driving a Toyota.  Furthermore, there is also a commercial about how Toyota is dedicated to their customers.

All in all, Toyota is trying to reestablish itself in the car industry by offering promotions and solidifying the fact that consumers come first.  Im curious as to whether it will work.

Milk. When I was younger my mom always gave me a glass of milk with every meal but today it seems like more and more kids are missing out on the nutritional value of milk.

Dairy Farmers of America noticed this trend and launched a campaign to try and get more people to drink milk. It started in 1993 with the California Milk processor Board each donating 3 cents towards marketing and advertising their products, thus creating the well know, Got Milk? ads.   This small idea became huge in the United States and eventually Canada with countless celebrities promoting the consumption of milk by simply posing with a milk mustache.  Then after the success of the Got Milk? campaign, the Dairy Farmers of America launched a more recent Must Drink More Milk campaign which has taken off.

The more recent must drink more milk ads are a funny way to incite people to drink more milk. They have ads on all the common childrens networks such as Family Channel and Teletoon, as well as channels directed towards young adults such as MTV and even the CW. When consumers sit down to watch their favorite shows, at least once during that hour they will see a milk ad and wonder if they drink enough milk.

These campaigns have enabled the launch of websites promoting milk and even a website where you can buy the “products” that are being sold on their infomercial like commercials. Such as the support hat from weakshop.com a branch of mustdrinkmoremilk.com. These ads are hilarious and always get a laugh out of me because they are so random. It seems that the more random/ peculiar the ad, the more people will talk about it and therefore remember their advertisements.

Must you drink more milk?

COME OUT AND SUPPORT YOUR UBC THUNDERBIRDS!!!

This Friday and Saturday 5pm at Varsity Field come watch your Women’s Soccer team take on Alberta and Saskatchewan! If the weather is nice its a great way to spend some time outdoors and meet people within the UBC community.

Admission is FREE! So you have nothing to lose by coming to watch 🙂

I find it interesting how word of mouth can be one of the most effective ways of marketing.  How do you start the ongoing process? My all time favorite brand of clothing has to be without a doubt Lululemon! I love being comfy and cozy, yet not looking sloppy when you wear it.  What fascinates me is that I found out about Lululemon from other people who wear it.  The company didn’t invest millions of dollars in ad campaigns to try and catch the consumers attention, it just happened.  Think back through all the commercials you have seen on tv or ads you saw in a magazine, none of them were done by Lululemon.  The company’s owner effectively promoted his product by getting people to wear it and let them do the rest because he was confident in the quality of what he was selling.

Today lulu, a canadian owned company has expanded in to the US due to its growing success here.  Unfortunately, many Americans haven’t heard of lululemon as much as we have.  I am curious to see if word of mouth will be as affective in the US as it is here in Canada.  I feel like since the US has such a competitive product market compared to Canada, in order to succeed, Lululemon might not be able to rely solely on people talking about their product and they might have to create an ad campaign to achieve the same success.

What might help them succeed is the fact that todays society is concentrating more on a healthy lifestyle consisting of eating right and exercising regularly.  Lululemon has a competitive advantage because they are advertising a line of products, for both men and women, that people can work out in comfortably and, as lame as this sounds, look good doing it.  Eventually, I feel Lululemon will have the same amount of success in the States as they do here in Canada due to this shift in lifestyle.