Riyandi's Ruminations

Mark Zuckerberg is a marketing genius.  I recently saw the Social Network (couldn’t sleep at 2am in the morning :P), and it was by far one of the most thought-provoking movies I have ever seen.  Not only does it provide for an entertaining movie, it was one that cast light on the worldwide-phenomenon known as “social networking”.  In an age where, to use a phrase from the movie; everyone is “wired in”, people often lose track of reality.  Sure social networking is a good thing…but when it comes to replace face-to-face interaction, then it becomes a problem, regardless how real online interaction can be. 

Anyways what I really wanted to blog about was, birthday freebies!  It was a buddy of mines birthday over the weekend and we were feeling a little hungry around 10pm or so.  We hit up Denny’s :).  This was ’cause Denny’s has this special birthday promotion thing, free grand-slam meal for birthday people.  Breakfast food for supper :), satisfying.  This marketing ploy of theirs serves two purposes.  One, it brings traffic into the stores, duh.  But this traffic is interesting because, sure the birthday person get’s a free meal, but it’s unlikely that they will be eating alone, therefore, their friends/family will still be paying and in all likely hood will eat more than they normally would.  Second purpose, it boosts their reputation, it further strengthens their image as ‘the friendly neighbourhood diner’, people enjoy eating there not for the fancy food, but for familiarity and comfort.

It’s back! It’s back!! I don’t care that it’s only a week after halloween and 7 weeks or so early.  Christmas at Starbucks is back :).  The holiday menu is back, along with it’s patented red Christmas cups and eggnog latte, peppermint mocha, etc.  Starbucks is probably milking this whole Christmas thing for all it’s worth by starting this early but I love it. Christmas, as every marketer knows, is the most profitable time of the year, when I used to work at Hills Kerrisdale, our sales goals would be set at triple, nay quadruple the usual because everyone just seems to want to spend!  People start buying gifts for friends, family, etc and businesses really know how to cash in.  Anyways, I’m just so excited, I’m a bit rushed for time at the moment, I promise I’ll come back and do a proper analysis of CHRISTMAS MARKETING.  Bye for now!

I wasn’t feeling all too well a couple days ago, it probably has something to do with the weather getting so darn cold.  Anyways, I don’t know what is it about Buckley’s…but it works…seriously.  The taste is just as advertised, an awful mucus-like white liquid, consisting of these ingredients:

Camphor
Camphor is a mild expectorant and respiratory stimulant. It also has mild anesthetic and antiseptic properties. Camphor helps to relieve chest congestion associated with colds and influenza (flu).

Menthol
Menthol decreases nasal congestion through local anesthetic action and stimulation of cold receptors. When inhaled, Menthol can relieve coughs and the sense of oppression in the chest. This ingredient is used to relieve symptoms of bronchitis, sinusitis, and nasal congestion.

Canada Balsam
This is a liquid oleoresin from Abies Balsamea (Pinaceae). This plant is found in Canada and Northern U.S. from Virginia to Minnesota. Balsams have traditionally been used as an expectorant for coughs and sore throats.

Pine Needle Oil
Pine Needle Oil has historically been used as an expectorant for the treatment of coughs and chronic bronchitis.

Tincture of Capsicum
Capsicum has been traditionally used as a counter-irritant to soothe conditions of the throat.

These, ingredients really mix together to make one of the most potent cold-medication’s known to man.  Anyways, what I find so interesting is that this one of the few products that has ‘bad taste’ as it’s marketing slogan.  Given, it does work, but still wouldn’t you rather have a cold-medicine that works AND tasted good?  Or maybe they’ve got it in our minds that if it tastes good, it doesn’t work.  But I suppose this interesting differentiating factor is what sets it apart from other cold-medicines, I know, everyone else knows, Buckley’s is the way to go when you feel extremely under-the-weather, and are looking to get something to ‘blast’ your entire system clean.  I almost think of it like pouring pipe-cleaner for the throat, down my throat, it’s like a purging feeling.

Our in-class discussion today about bottled water really piqued my interest, so I ran a few quick searches on google and found this very interesting blog! http://luxurywater.blogspot.com/.  This blog is pretty self-explanatory, it’s blogger is a bottled water fanatic and collects various bottles from all around the world.  His goal is best summed up by this quote:

“When we buy a bottle of water, what we’re often buying is the bottle itself, as much as the water. We’re buying the convenience–a bottle at the 7-Eleven isn’t the same product as tap water, any more than a cup of coffee at Starbucks is the same as a cup of coffee from the Krups machine on your kitchen counter. And we’re buying the artful story the water companies tell us about the water: where it comes from, how healthy it is, what it says about us. Surely among the choices we can make, bottled water isn’t just good, it’s positively virtuous”
–  Charles Fishman (2007)

The types of water he collects come from famous luxury names such as Maserati, Paul Smith, Romero Britto, etc.  One bottle that caught my attention in particular is the bling h2o line.  This particular brand is targeted for the super-rich, extremely posh, hollywood types, the bottle is handcrafted with Swarovski Crystals for goodness sakes..

Bling h2o water products range from around $40 to this incredible the “Ten Thousand” Dubai Collection bottle priced at $2600!

Isn’t water…just water…Personally I’ve always just been fine with tap water, the times that I buy bottled is for convenience sakes.

I find it really amusing that these sort of products exist but I suppose if there’s a market…:)  Maybe one day I’ll be able to buy bling h20 water.

I was looking through some of my classmates blogs and one in particular caught my attention :)  KristineLiuCheerio.
I too have noticed that companies are all jumping on the healthier-lifestyle bandwagon.  This thought-provoking post got me thinking about all the other chemically-enhanced/mechanically processed foods we consume.  Consumer’s are increasingly becoming pickier eaters and rightfully so, it seems like in this mass-consumption/production era, everything we eat has been processed to the point that I can hardly call it food anymore.

For example, I recently came across this post from an outside blog MechanicallySeperatedChicken.  This is absolutely revolting! Basically what they do is take chickens, mash the entire thing, bones, head, guts, etc and they spew it out like those play-doh french fry molds.  After it’s in this paste form, they mold it into the form of chicken we usually see, for example nuggets.  Then since it tastes and looks horrible, they artificially flavour and colour the entire thing, WAY TO GO CORPORATE AMERICA!  I can’t believe we all eat this stuff…

Absolutely incredibly NASTY.  But hey, you know, through clever marketing and positioning, corporate america has introduced a product such as mechanically seperated chicken into our everyday diets, yay!

So last weekend I was shopping for cars with a friend of mine that’s looking for an SUV and we spent the entire weekend test driving, discussing, quoting prices, etc.  Three particular brands that caught my attention were Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche.  Now you may or may not know it but Volkswagen owns the latter two and so much of their cars share common parts.  We’ll take three cars that are pretty much…comparable in functionality; the VW Touareg, Audi Q7 and Porsche Cayenne.  These three SUV’s all share the same chassis, same four wheel drive technology, etc.  They even share many of the same options such as the panoramic sunroof that caught my attention so :).  Anyways what I’m trying to get at is, even though these three cars essentially serve the same purpose, they are able to brand and market them as three totally different products!  A fully loaded top of the line touareg would list for around $60,000, the audi a bit more than that and the porsche for around $130,000.

What I’m trying to get at is, their brands are targeted towards different market segments, the upper middle class, the upper class and the upper-upper class!  It’s interesting to note that while talking to their respective dealers, I had a clear perception on their marketing style and selling point.  For the Volkswagen it was very much, hey we have a great product, it’s in-stock and available, you can have a high quality car in your garage in a matter of days.  For the Audi it was hey we have an even better product, it’s not in-stock but you can place an order and we’ll get it to you in a month or two.  For the PORSCHE…the dealer was like this, we start production in January, we operate on a supply and demand basis so if we have 1000 orders we’ll make 800.  Your welcome to join the waiting-list.  Wow, I felt like sheesh…all this for an overpriced car thats pretty much another car with a different badge.  BUT at the end of the day…I left the show-room wanting a Porsche more than any other…funny how that works out haha, I guess people want what they can’t have :)

Well, clubs day is back and  this time I vow to be a better club shopper! Last year I was so excited to be at UBC that I pretty much joined any club that approached me.  I ended up joining 10 clubs and I can honestly say out of those 10, I was active in only two of them :( can you say waste of money.

I’m sure you’ve all experienced the endless barrage of fliers and handouts by various clubs asking for your membership.  It’s literally impossible to walk to the bookstore from the SUB without being stopped so I was just wondering… is this kind of marketing really effective?  I mean, it certainly worked when I was a poor misguided first year but how bout the rest of the student population?  I’m waiting for the day that somebody comes up with something revolutionary.  Something beyond facebook pages, signs on the highway, promotional videos, etc.

If I was a club promoter, these are the questions I would want answered.  Who are we?  What is our image?  How do we get maximum exposure?  What is our competitive advantage and how do we exploit it?  And lastly, what is the most viable approach to reaching older students that have perhaps committed to other clubs?

-Currently thinking hard just like this guy.

Well hi there!  We’re supposed to be updating this blog regularly but I don’t really know how that’s gonna turn out haha; I’m quite forgetful.

My name’s Riyandi and I’m a 2nd year student at Sauder.  I haven’t decided on a major yet but I’m leaning towards accounting, but maybe this class will convince me otherwise ;).  In my spare time I sing in the Six Guys Acapella Group, that’s us down there.  We sometimes go by another name but it’s a tad inappropriate so you’ll just have to ask me personally to find out! Oh and  before you say anything…I know that there are seven of us in that picture.  Anyways that’s all for now, I’ll catch you all later!

-Riyandi