Category: Uncategorized

Over one of my breaks, I was down in Seattle, Washington shopping at Nordstrom. I was especially impressed by their fantastic customer service. My friend and I were greeted by extremely happy looking and friendly staff. When my friend asked to try on shoes, the salesman came out with three boxes. One was the pair of shoes my friend had asked to try on and the other two were shoes of a similiar style picked out by the salesman. As I left the store, I realized that out of approximately 10 sales people working in the female shoe department, all of them had been male. Dressed in fine suits and rather good looking …

Rajavir talked about the Evolution of Marketing in his blog and more specifically, the success of sex appeal in selling. The first noted use of sex appeal in marketing was in 1871, so this concept has been around for a LONG time. But what was the point of my story? Since people know sex sells, they have been expanding the use of sex appeal past simple print or distributive marketing strategies. They are applying these marketing concepts to their Human Resources strategies as well. How ethical is this though?

This type of marketing does not  fall under one of the major categories of social criticism (as dictated by my textbook). It is not exactly high pressure selling, or deceptive or an excessive markup, or the selling of a shoddy product or ‘redlining’. So while it may not be breaking any rules, it may still have negative social implications. The idea of masculinity, heteronormativity, the manipulation of a woman’s desires, selling your body etc. can all be linked back to the use of attractive males to sell women’s shoes. Not to mention, hiring good looking people of a certain gender is discrimination. So while it feels great to walk into a store and be pampered by good looking people, think about it from a bigger picture.

For an urban Asian with internet connection, it’s almost impossible to never have heard of ‘K-pop’ (South Korean pop). How are they so well known though? What gives them the ability to sell out some of the largest concert stadiums in countries their artists have never even set foot in? As  marketing blogger Matthew Bywater details in his “K-pop Marketing” analysis, the marketing techniques of the South Korea pop music industry is definitely something to take note of.

Matthew touches on their collaborations with international artists and producers as a important factor. One major point is that the collaborations are chosen appropriately, giving them the leverage of greater appeal to their target market.

SM Entertainment, (one of the major media companies who identify talent and provide rigorous training to produce these star pop groups), has taken this targeting of new markets to a new level. They divided their latest male pop group EXO into two units, a group of Korean members and a group of Chinese speaking members (most of whom are actually from China), EXO-K and EXO-M respectively. Each group released a song and music video at the exact same time, which look and sound almost exactly the same, except for the fact one is in Korean and the other Chinese. In marketing terms, this group is an example of ‘diversification’.

SM Entertainment is the first to produce a group whose main purpose is to exist in the Chinese market from the get-go and have thus already started accumulating a large Chinese fan base. I am interested to see how the results from this strategy may differ in the long run.

Overall, it seems South Korea has found their niche and through their refined and perfectly executed marketing techniques, they are now making a place for their culture in the world.

While browsing through many blogs looking for inspiration on my next topic, Nicole Louie’s blog post “Apple: Let the Fans and Media Market for You” caught my eye. She mentioned how Apple’s success is partially attributed to how they “let YOU imagine how you can best benefit from their product”. This reminded me of all the video contests I have noticed popping up in recent years.

Most recently I watched Sauder’s video submission for the “2011 Glimpse into the Future” contest for Become a CA.

As I reflected I realized most of these contests include two key components:
1. The company/organization’s product must be featured in some fashion
2. Whichever video receives the most positive online responses (whether this may be ‘likes’ on youtube or comments on a forum) is the winner.

This marketing idea is ingenious! (at least when it comes to targeting the younger technologically savvy generation). Not only are consumers & fans of the product able to communicate with the company in a creative way, they are also able to communicate to other online viewers what they see in that product. What does that product mean to the video maker? What kind of image does that product have in their eyes? In the video above, I got the idea that becoming a CA required much hard work, but as a CA I’d be a member of a respected high-class profession and have the opportunity to travel and work abroad among other things.

Companies benefit greatly from the large exposure as contest applicants spread it around  their network of friends and acquaintances. Fans are literally marketing for the company, for a fraction of the cost. And I have to admit, that video may have worked in swaying me into considering becoming a CA.

I’ll be honest, my thoughts on the marketing industry has always erred on the negative side. Though I have always appreciated and often been pleasantly surprised by the cleverness and creativity found in marketing (such as the ads found here: http://creativenerds.co.uk/inspiration/100-most-funny-and-creative-advertisement-designs/), I still felt a sense of deception. Often, an almost unrealistically positive image is projected of the product. It appeared, marketing was all about giving a one-sided view of things in an attempt to brainwash its audience into becoming one of its advocates. Once sucked in, the value of each consumer would be maximized and extracted, all in the interest of already wealthy shareholders.

As I began to look more into marketing though, I realized that marketing is not all bad.  For one, many organizations are using marketing to send us reminders of social or environmental responsibility. No, not everyone may agree with the message being sent, but at least it allows one to think critically. I found these sorts of ads particularly memorable as it really caused me to stop and reflect on my role as a global citizen. The world is far from perfect. What should or could I be doing to contribute?

With more of these reminders, perhaps we would be able to create a better society!