Ryan's Blog

The final marketing assignment in where we had to construct a video was a very interesting approach to marketing because I thought that it allowed the group to “market” themselves in a sense through a video. I say marketing themselves is interesting because we will be going through a peer review and it is advantageous to stand out from the norm.

Some things that went well when doing the project was that we were able to get a hold of proper equipment such as an audio recorder, a tripod, and a high definition camera. This made our project seem more professional when it came out as a final product. We were also able to find several locations where we thought would be very interesting places to shoot. We tried to stay away from Sauder class rooms because we felt that it would be too generic when viewed.

Some of the things that could have been improved on if I was able to go back in time would be to get a hold of an audio recorder earlier because the sound quality from a proper audio recorder is much better than straight from the camera, as we weren’t able to use the audio recorder in every single clip. It also removes all the background clutter that comes when you are using a regular camera to film. Another thing I would do differently would probably be make smoother transitions between clips with appropriate titles and captions, although we did do that, there were some aspects that we were certainly lacking.

Overall, I feel like we put the right amount of effort into completing this video and I’m interested to see how the results come out to be.

My fellow class mate Aron has recently just blogged about the the competition between Microsoft and Sony with regards to their upcoming next generation gaming consoles. The XBOX One and the Playstation 4 have definitely become heated competitors in the competitive marketing of gaming when it comes to performance, but this competition has been going on since the release of the XBOX and Playstation 3.

In a marketing perspective, I agree with what Aron has said about how Microsoft has focused more on the things that their product is not able to do, and that Sony has capitalized on the mistakes that Microsoft has made, and have focused on the things that their product is capable of doing. This is also a really interesting trend because we’ve seen throughout the years that usually, the information and press releases on the XBOX have come out first, and Sony has followed up shortly after. This may be a strategy that Sony uses to see what their competitor is lacking, and to capitalize strongly on those points to make the faults stand out even more. It would make it even harder for Microsoft to bounce back after Sony uses a strategy like this.

Personally, I prefer using the Playstation because I enjoy more of the games that are exclusive to the console, but I believe that Sony’s marketing has definitely played a part in helping me make that decision. For example, I was really concerned when choosing between an XBOX and PS3, that the XBOX would get a “red ring of death” even though many of my friends had XBOX’s at the time. Microsoft has never really made an effort to address that concern and that is why I went with the choice on buying a Playstation 3.

Aron’s Post Here!

Drake has been an ever growing popular artist in the modern day, and that trend doesn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon. The Toronto-born rapper feels a strong connection to his hometown team, the Toronto Raptors, the city’s basketball team. Therefore, he accepted the offer of being the global ambassador for the franchise that has been struggling over the years. Being the only team in Canada, it is hard for the Raptors to stay competitive with all the other American teams in the NBA. They lack a strong presence in the market, because in the end, professional sports is still a business. Ever since their star player, Vince Carter, was traded, the presence of the Raptors has never really been the same. The view on Canadian NBA teams is that we’re not as strong and not as heavily funded. By utilizing Drake’s massive presence, Toronto wants to be able to rebrand what the Raptors truly are, and want fans of other teams to fear playing the Raptors.

I believe that having Drake as a global ambassador would definitely be an asset in Toronto’s efforts in rebranding their line strongly due to the fact of Drake’s roots stemming from Toronto, and how he mentioned that the Raptors were a staple part of his childhood. Drake’s overall positive image as a rapper will definitely help direct the Raptors to a place in the NBA market with more respect from the different teams and their fans.

Read More Here!

In 2009, during the debut of their brand name, Herschel Supply was already able to clearly identify their target market and find the people who they thought their bags would appeal to. The Vancouver based duo started their company off strong not only by having a clear understanding of what consumers wanted in a bag, but they were also able to revamp the bag into a more modernized, yet nostalgic, design. They aligned their new product with brands that would fit their target segment like Stussy and New Balance, allowing their target consumers to have easy access to Herschel’s seemingly complementary product.

Positioning has played an enormous role in making Herschel Supply the company it is today. Finding the right people to market to, at the right time, at the right place, and at the right price has really allowed Herschel to become the world renown brand it is in the current market. Nevertheless, with all that being said, Herschel Supply does not participate in any mass marketing of any sort. In a sense, they prefer to let the consumers discover the brand instead of showing the brand to people themselves through mass advertising. The only types of advertising they participate in are seasonal advertisements in specific magazines in different countries, and mobile advertising such has having their own account on popular media sharing app, Instagram. When consumers discover such an ‘organic’ brand such as Herschel, they feel a sense of discovery, thinking that they’ve found something that is actually really ‘cool’ to them.

Today, Herschel can be found in many parts of the world and has established a strong brand identity amongst it’s users. With their ‘organic’ business model, Herschel looks to continue their success changing the face of bags in the 21st century.

Read More Here!

Within the past decade, technology has evolved immensely and everything is becoming more and more digitalized. Advertising has surely kept up in pace with these changes. The market for “mobile advertising is booming,” and companies are spending a lot more money onto these mobile advertisements because that is where people are starting to spend most of their time. Not many people have the liberty of purchasing a magazine anymore, and therefore, advertisements within magazines are becoming less effective with the technological revolution. Alternatively, people are spending more time on their phones, browsing social media websites, or doing something of their interest on their mobile devices. This has led companies to put more effort into placing their advertisements in places where people are going to look more frequently. You may have noticed advertisements whilst browsing Facebook on your mobile devices, or even when you’re playing your favourite game. Even Instagram, the popular social media application for sharing photos, will start to have advertisements on news feeds within the next couple of months.

Mobile advertisements make up 160 million dollars of the total amount spent for digital advertising. Revenues from paid mobile media are expected to be 50% greater than they were last year, and it doesn’t seem like these gains are going to stop anytime soon. The market for mobile advertising is still relatively young and there are still many ways for companies to improve the usage of their investment into mobile marketing. As technology continues to improves, the way of mobile marketing will continue to change with new and more innovative ways for companies to reach out to their target market. I strongly believe that within the next decade, digital and more specifically, mobile advertising, will develop into one of the largest advertising mediums of the 21st century.

Read More Here! 

I stumbled across a video showcasing new smartphone, the Nokia’s Lumia 800 in their “Blown Away” campaign. The advertisement consisted of a challenge between Nokia promoters using the Lumia 800 and regular people using their non-Nokia phones. In this video, the challenge was to see which phone could upload a photo to Facebook in the shortest amount of time. Undoubtedly, the Lumia 800 had won the challenge and beat out what is shown to be an iPhone. In other words, the competitors phone had just been “Blown Away” by the Lumia.

It can be argued that the campaign is an unethical one because there is a slight element of deception. The Nokia Lumia is shown to upload photos flawlessly to Facebook, while the competitor phone seems to have latency issues at certain points. Why is this deceptive? Because the competitor’s phone, held by the challenger, may be filled with data such as photos, videos, and applications, while the Nokia phone is brand new. Of course there will be discrepancy in processing speed between a phone with less memory left, rather than one with lots of memory.

Another point found in the article is interesting because it was related to Utilitarianism and how it is ethical to maximize everyone’s utility. By launching this campaign, Nokia and Nokia users will be increasing their utility by having their phones win against their rivals’ phones. However, their rivals and their respective user base will have a decrease in utility because of how this campaign would affect their views. Ultimately, the user base for competitor phones is much larger than the Nokia user base, therefore decreasing overall utility, hence it would be unethical to run this campaign with respect to Utilitarianism.

Read more and watch the video here!

We have learned a lot about business plans in class and the importance of having one to strategically and thoroughly plan out each and every step to take on an entrepreneurial venture. This method is more secure and will definitely allow you to account for things that you wouldn’t have thought about if you acted too impulsively. However, I stumbled on this article on why getting a product ready, firing it into the market and then plan afterwards, could potentially be better in some ways than traditionally method. The article emphasizes that the market is so unpredictable and even if we feel that we can predict trends, we will never completely understand what will happen. With this being said, it may be crucial, especially in the technology market, to first place the product and adjust from there. Besides, an entrepreneur could also suffer from what’s stated in the article as analysis paralysis where he or she is prepared but stuck on aiming to a point where they will never execute their venture. In my opinion, this is a really subjective topic and the decision should be made based on the urgency of the product or service to its demand in the market. If the product needs to be placed in the market quickly, then the Ready, Fire and Aim approach seems more viable, however if the urgency is not present, a standard Ready, Aim and Fire, seems more logical.

Read More About the Article Here!

Having shopped at Zara multiple times in Canada as well as Hong Kong, it was interesting to see how their business model worked in the class covering Supply Chain Management. Unlike other producers, Zara had a fast fashion business model of a short supply chain as opposed to a long supply chain. The difference is that most producers manufacture their products from China and have them shipped out, while Zara has their products sourced from Spain, Portugal and Morocco. This increases the relative costs Zara must pay as opposed to manufacturing in China, but allows Zara to watch global trends and react to them when necessary. I found this to be a very interesting strategy because it directly reflects upon myself as a consumer. The prices of Zara in North America and Hong Kong are relatively similar and marketed as a mid to high cost brand, as stated in this article, the prices should be slightly cheaper in Europe because of the shipping costs Zara must pay to import their brand into the North American and Asian Market. This is probably the reason for the slightly higher pricing. The company also rarely has large sales and I believe this is due to the ability of the company to transition into new trends without having to retain stocks from previous seasons, allowing them to not have to liquidate their products at any point in time.

Read More Here!

After the class on Corporate Social Responsibility, I realized that a companies productivity could potentially be decreased if they implemented sustainable practices. Companies could either be really efficient, but damage the environment, or they could be really sustainable, but slightly lack productivity when compared to less sustainable companies. Upon looking at more news articles however, I found that MGM Resorts International Properties was awarded the Highest Green Keys Meetings rating. Awarded by Green Key Global, this designation shows the highest form of sustainability displayed by MGM’s four resorts. With exceptional methods, these designated MGM resorts have state of the art technology that make the company more sustainable. This method has even been stated to improve the productivity of the company as opposed to popular belief of how it could affect the quality MGM brings. The world seems to be on a transition into more sustainable management of a company and care not only about the productivity and revenues of the company, but the betterment of the world. With technological improvements coming at a high rate, companies are gaining new inventions to help their company not only become more cost efficient, but also reduce the effects of their carbon footprint all together.

Read More About It Here!

After having a class on entrepreneurship, guest speaker Amielle Lake’s company Tagga seemed very interesting because it was something that was more related to the current advancement in technology. This company seemed to tie in with the things learned in the MIS and BTM class where the company is attempting to implement mobile marketing as a new form of technology due to the uprise in the smartphone industry. I found that Lake entered the market at a good time because the opportunities were bountiful because smartphones were just being introduced in 2008. Although the competition is fierce in this market, Tagga has been able to snag some big names such as Adidas, Lindt chocolate and Redbull which has made me feel like the company is on a successful route. On another note, I thought that it was really motivating to listen to the founder speak for the company herself and show the hardships that can come along in starting up a business. I was surprised to hear that she had stepped down from the CEO position to move to the CRO position, this made me realize that she wanted the better of the company as opposed to a better title for herself. The drive to sustain her dream company has inspired even more to pursue an entrepreneurial path in the future.

Read More On An Interview with Amielle Here!