After reading several different posts from various marketing blogs, the one that caught my attention the most was from the Influential Marketing Blog, mainly because it mentioned some ideas that I have certainly thought about during Comm 296.
1. Minimalism. Personally, I prefer those products or services that have straight-forward advertising campaigns, as well as a clear marketing mix. I always choose minimalism over maximalism. Advertising should be honest and unambiguous, companies should give what they offer and packaging should be plain and explicit. I would say Apple is the company that best suits this description.
- iPhone 4: minimalist, simple and straight-forward packaging.
2. Having more options is not necessarily better. Economics tends to state that a larger number of brands for the same product will increase market competition, and so benefit the consumer in the long term. I partly disagree. Personally, I dislike going to a clothing store to find about twenty different types of jeans. I am aware that more brands means that the price becomes competitive, but to be honest I would rather choose between three or four options, and not from twenty. Mainly because if I am not fully satisfied with my final decision, my sense of regret afterwards will be very high. In any case, I can barely tell the difference between most brands.
- Three options. Choose one. A good deal to me.
3. Benefits are crucial. If there is one main idea that you learn in Comm 296, that is the following: costumers do not buy features, they buy benefits. As mentioned in the blog post, one of Blackberry’s competitive advantages is their physical keyboard. In terms of usage, applications, and features, they cannot really compete with other smartphones, such as the iPhone. However, RIM has managed to succeed without really heavily advertising this feature. Some customers consider this benefit invaluable, and that is the key of their success. No advertising is really necessary.
- The Blackberry keyboard: the key to their success.
After reading many classmates’ blogs, I finally found Amanda’s post and I thought it was really interesting. She talks about honesty in marketing and how it can affect the image of a certain product or brand. In my opinion, I like the idea of having an honest world but I know that achieving that is near impossible, especially when there is so much competitiveness everywhere. Marketing is certainly one of the places in which I wouldn’t expect much honesty, because let’s face it: most times it’s about winning, not about transparency.
While doing some research on transparent marketing, I stumbled upon Domino’s Pizza campaign called “Domino’s Pizza Turnaround”, which was all about being honest with the consumers. The first step was accepting that their pizza was, basically, horrible. In the video we can see people in focus groups complaining about various features, describing the crust as ‘cardboard’ and the sauce as ‘ketchup’. As a result, they decided to redesign their recipe in an attempt to make a better product.
We will never be sure if Domino’s chose this marketing strategy because they wanted to make a real change or because they couldn’t hide the fact that their product was terrible anymore. Anyways, I’m really glad that we can see some transparent marketing once in a while.
If you want to know how customers reacted to the new recipe, watch this video.
First of all, I should say that Apple is probably my favourite company and brand. I really like their ability to make a high-quality, very user-friendly and efficient products, as well as their mission of always trying to innovate in the markets they compete in. Consequently, I was really glad to find Nicole’s blog post about Apple and I found her opinion of their marketing strategy to be very interesting.
It’s very true that when other companies just try to commercially attack Apple it just does not work and Apple gains more attention and positive response. Apple’s whole marketing strategy is based on simplicity and user-friendliness, which are directly derived from their products, and their advertisements always try to show that. The company has managed to successfully build and shape its brand and, in the last few years, it has become very famous.
I’m from Peru, a developing country where Apple products are very expensive for the average consumer; they are even expensive for consumers with a higher buying power. I can confirm that Apple products in Peru cost at least an extra $800 than the US normal price. Nonetheless, Apple is slowly entering the market, positioning itself and gaining a loyal customer base. I should emphasize that Peru’s economic growth and success during the last decade has been a big factor in this trend as well.
Finally, Apple’s constant and massive market share increase in the past few years has been, in part, thanks to their growth in developing countries. What I find very interesting is that the brand does not change its marketing strategy depending on the location. From experience, I can say that their advertisement in Peru is very similar to their advertisement in the US or Canada.
One of Apple's iStore located in Lima, Peru
When I think about marketing, I think about advertising campaigns. In our first lecture, we were told that marketing is not just about that. However, it is one big part and so I decided to write about an interesting campaign for this first post. I tried to think about a certain commercial I had watched recently and found appealing, interesting and innovative. After some time thinking, I remembered Sony’s PlayStation newest campaign: “Long Live Play”.
Following the extremely successful “It Only Does Everything” campaign (2009-2011), PlayStation has managed to live up to the expectations with this new engaging and innovative campaign. “Long Live Play” is about the gaming experience and how PlayStation can bring several entertainment options to different types of audiences.
A few months before, PlayStation asked their loyal gamers to send pictures of themselves with their consoles and a brief description of what the PS3 meant for them. The response was amazing; thousands of gamers sent their responses. PlayStation selected about a dozen of those die-hard gamers to represent the gamer community and the resulting ad was fantastic and critically acclaimed. The key to its success was engaging the customers and letting them be part of the campaign. This way, the customer felt valued and could appreciate the company more. This, along with bringing the price of their most basic console down to $249 has been essential.
The previous “It Only Does Everything” campaign helped to increase PS3 sales by 184% in the first three months and overall make the PS3 a household name in 50 million houses worldwide. This new campaign definitely seems to be in the same path. Sony managed to innovate by engaging their customers in a unique way to further strengthen the relationship with their existing customers and create new ones with potential ones.
In Comm 299 (Career Fundamentals) I learned about my strengths, skills and abilities. Through the Strength Quest, a really useful tool, I found out that I am analytical, disciplined, consistent, relator and harmonious. These helped me realize my specific strengths, something that would have been difficult to specify by myself. Now I am aware of my skills and I can focus on making the most out of them.
Moreover, the course was very helpful in improving my resume and cover letter skills. In a career in which these two documents are extremely important and crucial to get the job that I want, this course was very helpful to prepare myself for the future. Additionally, I learned from the interview that I have to improve my communication skills. I have not had any previous experience in interviews, so this was a really helpful activity to see how I could do in a situation like that. Now I can concentrate on improving my weak points to be well prepared for when I really apply for a job.
Overall, I think that Comm 299 was a really useful course that helped me learn several important aspects of myself.
I can say that I’ve learned many great lessons in the last few years. So that makes it quite hard to choose only one. Anyway, I would say that the greatest lesson is one I learned from my parents. And that is: to know how fortunate I am and be grateful for that.
I come from Peru, a developing country in which the average person is not as fortunate as me. I am very aware of that and I am very grateful. I have been given the opportunity to study in one of the best universities in the world and the best way to show how thankful I am for that is taking the most out of this experience. That means doing my best, not only academically but also in other aspects. That is why I put a lot of effort to achieve my objectives.
I can say that I know what is it to have the chance to do well and not do it. The feeling is terrible and I would never like to feel it again. I’m not saying that fear is what is driving me to try my best; I’m saying that experience has taught me not to make certain mistakes. In conclusion, I consider this the greatest lesson learned because it made me learn several other lessons.
Be grateful for what you have
Google has become one of the biggest corporations in the world
Google is one of the biggest technological, offering a wide range of Internet-based services and products, including Gmail, Google Chrome, Android, Google Buzz, Picasa, Google Talk and even YouTube. This huge corporation is in the route to becoming the biggest innovative technological corporation in the world.
But the success comes from the vision of the entrepreneurs that founded Google: Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page. These visionaries have been able to turn what started as a small research project on search engines into a technological giant. Their values and norms are based on the importance of the workers, who are the people who make the company develop, innovate and maintain their leadership.
They have achieved a great organizational culture, in which workers are motivated intrinsically and they are, in simple words, very happy to work at Google. Brin and Page know that this is crucial for them to develop the most advanced applications and programs that finally make the corporation a world leader.
Google workers have an extremely positive working environment with all the facilities you can imagine, including cafeterias, gyms, laundry facilities, volleyball pitch, swimming pool and even massage rooms. They even allow their programmers to spend 20% of their work time on projects not related to Google. Gmail is an example of a service which was initiated as a non-related project.
Google entrepreneurs have shown the world that they can treat their employees the best way and be the world leaders in their market and probably become the most powerful corporation in the world in a few years.
Further reading: Google’s entrepreneurial spirit
Marketing is essential in every business. It is the process of defining current and potential customers, and promoting the product accordingly to increase sales. Coca-Cola and Pepsi are the two biggest companies in the beverage industry, and their fierce competition depends greatly on their marketing strategies.
In 2008, for the Beijing Olympic Games, Coca-Cola decided to become official sponsors, taking in consideration the huge potential of the Chinese market. Coca-Cola saw this as the perfect opportunity to strongly compete in a market in which Pepsi was the clear leader.
However, during the Games, a survey concluded that 60% of the people thought that Pepsi was the official sponsor, showing that Coca-Cola’s marketing strategy had clearly failed. Additionally, respondents considered Pepsi a superior brand. Furthermore, only 10% of the respondents said that they were more likely to buy a product only for being an official Olympic sponsor.
Coca-Cola’s main error was focusing their strategy in a short-term, one-time dose of marketing, such as the Olympics campaign. On the other hand, Pepsi had designed a long-term brand-building marketing strategy in which they had managed to conquer most of the Chinese market, even years before the Games.
Pepsi's long-term strategy defeated Coca-Cola's short-term strategy in the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games
Further reading: Beijing Olympic sponsorship analysis
Patricia Dunn, HP chairwoman at the time of the pretexting scandal
In 2006, CNET news published exclusive details of HP’s long-term strategy, information leaked directly from the boardroom. Patricia Dunn, HP chairwoman at the time, hired spies to uncover the source of the leak. The problem was that these spies used pretexting, an illegal and unethical way of obtaining personal information about another individual.
The reason for the information leakage was mainly employee deviance, as they were voluntary actions that violated established norms within HP. It was found that Jay Keyworth, a long-service board member, was the source of the leak. He was forced to resign, which caused another board member, Tom Perkins, to become a whistleblower and reveal all of the boardroom’s internal problems.
Dunn’s decision of finding the responsible person was certainly part of her job as a chairwoman. However, the way she did so was unethical. Her utilitarianistic reasoning showed that she thought that the end justified the means. This unethical decision caused a further organizational crisis, which resulted in several people losing their jobs. HP could not handle the post-crisis media coverage and showed a poor organizational culture.
Overall, HP’s crisis is a clear example of how lack of ethics, misunderstanding of organizational norms, employee deviance and a poor organizational culture can lead to a major crisis.
Further reading: HP’s pretexting scandal FAQ
Internet users will exceed 2 billion by the end of this year. This means that almost 1 out of 3 people in the world will have access to the world wide web. The number of online users has doubled since 2005. Only in this 2010, 226 million people have become new Internet users, and two thirds of these are from developing countries.
This emphasizes the importance of the Internet in any business. It is the best way of communicating with the clients and show them what the business has to offer them. Social networks, such as Facebook, have become an essential media to connect with current and potential clients.
Moreover, this gives more opportunities for entrepreneurship to develop. There are many new businesses which are solely based online, and they are as profitable as any other. For example, Oscar Rodriguez founded his own diamond online store. In his first three months, he sold $200,000 worth of diamonds.
This gives an idea of the potential that the Internet and all its features has to offer to businesses and new entrepreneurs.
Oscar Rodriguez, entrepreneur, and Paris Hilton, one of his exclusive customers
Further reading:
Internet users exceed 2 billion
Oscar Rodriguez online diamond store
