russellng

This past weekend was a big shopping day for everyone especially those living in the US.  Almost all retail stores had Black Friday sales and a lot of online store even added a shopping day on monday called “Cyber Monday”.  There were a lot of big sales and great deals during the weekend which had consumer products having as much as 80% off the normal retail price.  I believe this is a very effective pull to make consumers buy products.  During the weekend, people all go crazy and line up for the opening of the stores as early as 4 AM!  Due to huge crowds lining up and competing against each other to get the best deals, there are even security concerns and risk of stampedes happening.  There was also news about people hurting each other just to cut into the lines and some people even get arrested for threatening to use a gun just to get ahead in line.

Statistics show that people spend an enormous amount of money on consumer products during Black Friday sales and the sales of retailers go up significantly during this period.  This shows that having big sales like this is really an effective way to pull consumers to buy products especially with Christmas already around the corner.  This would be my last blog post for this term.  I hope you guys enjoyed my blog!  – Jann Russell Ng

This is Maria Sharapova in InStyle magazine’s cover for Russia

This is Michael Jordan in Slam magazine which is a famous basketball magazine

LeBron James in GQ

Megan Fox in FHM and GQ

Marian Rivera and Angel Locsin – two famous actresses in the Philippines in Cosmopolitan and Marie Claire’s cover

President Barack Obama in Time Magazine

People spend a lot of time and resources in producing the “perfect” magazine cover.  Rightfully so, because I believe that these covers are what make people take interest in magazines in the first place.  If you are like me, I would sometimes come across a magazine brand that I do not know of but because I see someone I know or like in their cover,I end up buying the magazine just because I’m interested on the featured person on the cover.  I believe the magazine industry is aware of this and that is why they spend a lot of time on their magazine’s cover.  This is true for different kinds of magazines who pay huge amounts of dollars just to put famous celebrities like actresses, athletes and politicians on their cover.

Examples based on the pictures I posted:

For example, a sports magazine would attract a lot of attention if they have famous superstar athletes like LeBron James or Michael Jordan on their cover.

Women’s magazines would benefit from famous actresses and celebrities who a lot of women admire or desire to be like. (Maria Sharapova)

Men’s magazines would gain attention from famous celebrities like Megan Fox posing in sexy and provocative pictures.

Demographics are also important for these covers.  For example for geographic purposes, Barack Obama‘s Time magazine cover would appeal more to North America while Marian Rivera and Angel Locsin would appeal to people in the Philippines. The cover of Barack Obama got a lot of attention with its cool schemes and colorways.  A lot of people started using the picture’s colorways and effects after seeing the cover as evidenced by how many people used them on their Facebook profile pages.

Evian launched a new campaign called Live Young which lets you make a t-shirt that has a baby’s body on it.  When you wear the t-shirt, it would look like you in a baby’s body! It is kind of cool and cute at the same time.  Evian used facebook to market this campaign with the help of professional tennis player Maria Sharapova. Evian had good product placement in their ads with Maria Sharapova.  Their product blended in well with the picture.

These pictures were taken from her Facebook page and she commented about the campaign by saying “If you love my Babies on the Inside ad, make one of your own – people all over the world are doing it (including moi)!  Visit http://liveyoungcommunity.evian.com/ to create your own Live young photo with a favorite personal pic.”  Another comment by Maria “If you’re envious of the evian ® Baby T I’ve been sporting lately, now you can score one too! It’s all part of evian’s Live young Month in August, visit the Events tab at Evian’s facebook page to learn more, and you could win a shirt just like mine.”  Evian is letting people make and customize their own Live Young t-shirts on their website.  They are also giving away these shirts if you join their special event.

I think this is a smart marketing move by Evian to raise awareness of their brand.  They are conveying that Evian is a brand that is fun and healthy.  People want to be forever young and Evian is encouraging everyone to Live Young! This would really put Evian above its competition because they are the only mineral water company that I know that has launched something like this.

I encountered an external blog by expert Scott Monty titled “Online Ad Targeting is Pretty Much Like Dating”.

The title would attract a lot of people’s attention.  I wonder how can online ads be like dating. The answer is simple, much like how men complain about how they do not know what women want, just ask them.  A survey conducted by targeting company Q Interactive asked 1800 female internet users about the practice of targeted advertising.  88% said they wanted more targeted offers from the brands they trust.  These women also want the brands they trust to know them better and know what they like or want.  Much like dating, these women wants a more personal connection to these brands that they trust.

The point is that instead of using complicated, algorithm based market research, just go with the simple way of asking your target directly what they want.  These can lead to referrals, recommendations and brand loyalty  which in dating would be the equivalent of a second or third date.

I think this blog by Scott Monty is pretty good.  He shows us that sometimes simple ways of marketing is better and more efficient than all those complicated and costly methods.

I am a big fan of traveling and one of my goals in life is to travel and see the world.  I want to focus on the 7 wonders in my blog today.  When I saw what the 7 wonders of the world were, I immediately recognized which countries they belong to and felt an intense desire to go to those countries.  I believe a lot of other people feel this way too, thus impacting their traveling decisions.  I think this is an excellent strategy for the marketing of tourism in each of these countries.

These countries get a lot of publicity about their “wonders” so thousands of tourists flock to these places each day.  I went to Peru to see Macchu Picchu last summer and I was amazed by how many different people from all around the world visit that place.  A local told me that around 1000 visitors came to visit each day and this trend started when Macchu Picchu was officially announced as one of the 7 wonders of the world.

This is in fact an amazing way to increase tourism and I am sure that marketing and  the positioning statement made a big impact on the tourists who decided to visit these places.

Nike is targeting a new segment with their Nike Air Jordan Gucci special edition shoes.  Nike actually combines 3 major brand in this shoe.  They combine Nike, Jordan and Gucci to make the shoe very attractive and luxurious.  Nike is trying to target a different demographic with these shoes.  They want a demographic who has a higher income level and those who value luxury.

These shoes are very expensive and Gucci must believe in Nike to let them put their brand on Nike’s products.  I believe this puts Nikes ahead of their competition because Nike is the only sporting goods company that has collaborated with a high end brand such as Gucci.

This is a Megan Fox billboard for Emporio Armani women’s underwear in Los Angeles, California.  I am sure this distracts a lot of male drivers that pass along this street.

So the question is if sex really sells and if it is ethical to do so.

I believe that it works and male consumers often buy unnecessary products due to the model endorsing it or due to an attractive saleswoman selling it.  This happens a lot and I am sure a lot of men experience post purchase dissonance afterwards.  It is just hard for a man to ignore an attractive lady and say no to her.  Marketing executives know this “weakness” of men and cunningly take advantage of it.

As for women, this ad also works because women all see or hear how men go crazy at the sight of Megan Fox and how they treat her as is she is a goddess.  Women who see this kind of behavior might like that king of attention and try to emulate Megan Fox.  This leads to purchasing clothes that Megan Fox wears which would make Emporio Armani look good and appealing.

I think it is not very ethical to use women like this in ads because it seems to objectify women a lot.  But I am aware that in this modern age that we live in, it is quickly becoming a trend for women to be seen like this where as it would cause a controversy if this ad was shown 100 years ago.

Apple’s products just keep on getting better and better.  Just when you think they cannot get any better, they come right out and introduce a new amazing product.  What I seem to notice about Apple is that their products are so excellent that their competition had no chance of competing at all. The only real competition they have is against themselves so they try to outdo their own product every time. Like for example is their new Macbook Air.  They used to sell this amazingly thin, lightweight laptop for around $1600 but now they sell it for around $999 without compromising quality.  It is truly amazing what they are doing and their marketing team is doing an awesome job making their products very desirable that everybody wants one even if they do not need it.  I for one am a big fanboy of Apple.

I would like to comment on Anawin’s blog entry about Lebron James’s highly publicized and controversial “The Decision”.

LeBron James is one of my favorite basketball players and the response from his televised “Decision” has sparked many criticisms and negative feedback.  A lot of people are also saying that it was a huge marketing mistake and he destroyed his brand because of this. I would like to disagree with everyone about this.  I do not think Lebron deserves the criticisms and the negativity of everyone.

The nationally televised “Decision” was a huge success in my opinion because it generated $6 million dollars in ad revenue and it had almost 10 million viewers in the United States alone.  The show was basically just a professional athlete announcing where he is going to play next season and it still generated that much buzz and interest in the media and public.  When had a man’s decision been able to generate that much money and viewers? I do not think has ever happened before.  He also donated all the revenue to the Boys and Girls Clubs which is a charity for underprivileged children.  In my opinion, it was a big marketing success and Lebron is not getting enough credit for this excellent marketing strategy.

This is a link of Kerim’s blog post and Yousuf Ali’s blog post.  Both posts are about Lamborghinis and I thought of commenting about them.

It is interesting how Lamborghini can create cars that would sell for so much money.  Not only are they overpriced, but they are obviously not practical for anyone even if you are rich.

Even though the cars cost more than some houses, people still buy them.  One must wonder why…

I think it is due to Lamborghini’s great marketing.  They know how to sell not only the car, but also the experience and prestige of owning something so powerful and beautiful.  They sell the experience and the status of high society.  It is due to this innate desire of people to feel powerful and successful that Lamborghini is taking advantage of.  I think they did well in studying consumer behavior of people in the upper class bracket of society.