The number one image that comes to mind when I think of a journey… Between LOTR, Harry Potter, and Doctor Who, you could say my life is heavily influenced by the fruits of British imaginations…

And what a journey COMM 296 has been. This course proved to be one of my favourite courses this semester, both in terms of the material and the 11-12:20 time slot in which class was held. The semester-long assignment was an excellent opportunity to demonstrate an understanding of what I had learned in and out of the classroom in regards to marketing, and required me to push myself in order to meet the expectations of my group and my fabulous professor.

The assignment, for me, became something I could be proud to contribute to when the group’s ideas and efforts took on a more tangible form, as we found ways to represent our work in a comprehensive and creative video. Being able to write scripts and throw around ideas is something I enjoy and believe myself to be not so awful at, so this portion of the assignment was, believe it or not, fun for me to do. This part of the assignment also gave me the opportunity to be a complete and utter ham on camera (spoiler alert), something my mother will tell you I am very accomplished at. My behaviour during the filming process goes to show that a project of this magnitude highlighted the skillset of my group, allowing us to create something that reflects who we are as people, tailoring the assignment requirements to what we can do as a group. For this reason I feel that this type of project yields better results than a presentation could, not only in terms of a final mark, but an experience students can look back on. Though it had its bumps along the way, I think you should continue to structure the assignment into three parts with a video presentation. Thank you so much for the wonderful semester.

After reading Connor’s blog about the association between Guinness as a product and what it represents to the consumer, I started to think about how a consumer’s interpretation of a product could allow brand managers to morph the product’s brand around consumer opinions. Based on the advertisement Connor linked and his write-up, I started thinking about how a brand could be personified through successful marketing. In this Guinness advertisement, resilience, resolution, and friendship shone through, and thus consumers will associate these qualities with Guinness and its product. Characteristics that are appealing to consumers, as well as characteristics they will want to associate themselves with, have the potential to increase consumer interest and knowledge in the product, making it more attractive to markets.

My reply to Connor’s post is an example of another brand that has successfully personified their brand: Air New Zealand has created a series of safety videos that feature “special guests” ranging from Hobbits, to Betty White, to the New Zealand All Blacks Rugby Team and Gene Simmons. These advertisements have allowed Air New Zealand to take on multiple “personalities,” allowing it to make its brand more appealing to a variety of consumer segmentations: rugby fans, work out gurus, and the J.R.R. Tolkien cult, for example. Air New Zealand can associate itself with traits linked to those brands, boosting its brand reputation and building expectations for the service. This fun advertising campaign makes Air New Zealand more recognizable as a brand, and generates interest in consumers as they imagine themselves as being “fit to fly.”

Air New Zealand is “crazy about rugby,” as is demonstrated in their safety video featuring the All Blacks Rugby Team.

All eleven Doctors as they have appeared on television over the past 50 years. The 50th Anniversary episode, and all content relating to it tagged by the hashtag #SaveTheDay, will feature current Doctor Matt Smith, as well as past Doctors.

As one of the longest running television shows in British broadcast history, Doctor Who is a beloved show across the pond. The title character is a Time Lord who, with the help of his T.A.R.D.I.S. (Time and Relative Dimension in Space), travels through time saving the universe. The show first aired in 1963 on the BBC and continued to run for 26 seasons, which periodically saw a change of Doctors when the script saw to the death of the current Doctor, resulting in convenient regeneration and a new casting. Production halted in 1989 but recommenced in 2005, and this year the BBC celebrates the 50^th anniversary of The Doctor. One way the BBC is promoting the 50^th anniversary episode (featuring Doctors past and present) is through a marketing campaign that connects tagged Doctor Who content across multiple social media platforms to a central interactive TARDIS.

A brand that has grown with fans has had to evolve with its audience, aligning its values with those of its target market, finding the most effective ways to access audiences, and to deliver what consumers want when they want it. Doctor Who has achieved an almost cult-like status across the world, generated by the memorable storyline, but also through the casting of The Doctor and interaction between the product and consumers. By casting beloved actors like David Tennant, the Doctor Who empire is able to target and absorb Tennant’s followers, increasing the show’s consumer base. Consumers also have numerous opportunities to connect with The Doctor, increasing audience engagement: there have been many spinoffs, on television as well as on the radio, extending the breadth and depth of the series. Doctor Who has a huge presence across the Internet, bringing audiences as close as possible to their favourite time traveller and his incredible adventures.

In a phone interview with small business owner Linda Side, I had the opportunity to discuss how marketing influences the success of one of her companies, Northern Metalic Sales Ltd (NM). Established in 1954 in Dawson Creek with the objective of selling supplies to users of the newly constructed Alaska Highway, NM has since grown to become “one of the largest and most diversified… industrial supply houses in Western Canada.”

As would be expected for any business, Side emphasized the importance of being able to communicate a clear message to the target market, which is often segmented by industry type, as NM operates in regions where local economies are fuelled by the resource extraction. As can be demonstrated by a situation analysis, being able to identify one’s weaknesses as a firm is very important, and when asked what NM’s weaknesses were, Side quickly answered that NM is unable to “address certain demographics.” Demographics included in this set are age specific and revolve around Northern Alberta’s median age, which is 28.5, an age that’s attuned to social media. Side believes that in order to reach this demographic, NM will need to address social media adequately: “we don’t even have a marketing associate, which is apparent in our website maintenance.”

Being able to evolve is an important company objective for NM, which diffuses through from the brand image right down to inventory: to be relevant in the consumer’s eyes, and not allowing the success of tradition to direct future decisions, is crucial to the survival of a company. “Any company can say that they are customer-oriented. How can we be sure that any value-driven message is the same coming from each employee?”

Final comments? “Engagement is what drives an organization,” emphasizing that it isn’t all about the money.

We are all familiar with the use of celebrities in marketing to promote a product or service: Jennifer Hudson has been endorsing Weight Watchers since 2010, and is seen as success story after dropping 80 pounds with the program; CoverGirl has endorsed a variety of female celebrities, in both profession and physical appearance.

But with celebrity endorsement comes the risk of celebrity scandal, which is unavoidable in an age of constant media coverage. Firms need to be cautious with celebrity contracts, as were Burberry and Chanel when model Kate Moss’ substance abuse was made public in 2005. Both companies were able to maintain brand image and reputation by cancelling contracts with the model, severing ties between Moss and the brand names.

So if there’s such a high risk, why do companies continue to endorse celebrities?

As mentioned in class, consumers can associate an endorsed product with a certain celebrity and their lifestyle, resulting in an aspirational relationship with the product. Like CoverGirl has done, celebrity endorsements can allow firms to market variety of products to specific demographics based on similarities that the consumer shares with the celebrity (age, ethnicity, body type, etc.).

Celebrity endorsements also give firms the opportunity to align their reputation with the reputation of said celebrity. Harman Audio endorsed Paul McCartney to market “concert gear,” associating McCartney’s success as a musician to the product. McCartney has been using Harman’s products since his musical career with the Beatles, thus giving the consumer the idea that the product must be of substantial quality if an acclaimed musician like McCartney is endorsing it. Paul McCartney is a well-respected name in the world of music, and by associating themselves with McCartney, Harman International Industries is able to place their brand name at a similar value.

Sources

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/14/celebrities-weight-loss-plans-endorsed-diets_n_2124932.html

http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/sep/22/drugsandalcohol.vikramdodd

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CoverGirl#Endorsers

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-16/paul-mccartney-as-pitchman-may-lift-sales-of-harman-audio-gear.html

The well-known saying “keeping up with the Joneses” is given concrete meaning in the 2010 film “The Joneses,” in which a team hired by a marketing firm pose as a family in suburbia live and advertise the American Dream to their wealthy neighbours.

Stealth advertising, as described by Sandra L. Calvert in her book The Future of Children, is a method in which “marketers attempt to conceal the intent of an ad” by blurring the lines between content and advertising so the consumer doesn’t recognize it as advertising (an extreme example would be Derrick Borte’s film The Joneses). They are feasible marketing strategies in which actors use products in public, causally interacting with the customers about the product. This method recently used by Sony-Ericsson makes me question whether stealth advertising is an ethical practice: there seems to be some grey area. If people ask if the actors are hired, they have to say yes; but if they don’t, then consumers don’t know that they are being marketed at. I feel that consumers should have a right to know if someone is trying to sell them a product, be the method direct or indirect. Our world of consumerism is already so concentrated with brand names, blasts from the producers, and trademarks that throwing another company’s marketing strategy in the mix can overwhelm us and affect the decisions we make as consumers.

In the end it comes back to the consumer, as it should: we drive the economy, be it through need or desire. And as a consumer, I think that I should take the initiative to make good consumer decisions, because the idea of ethics in marketing is a two-way street: if I decide to purchase a product, even if the advertisement made me feel self-conscious, I’m letting someone somewhere know that their technique worked, despite how degraded I may have felt by their method of communicating this product. As consumers, we should decide the effectiveness of marketing strategies, not give into a cycle of inadequacy and guilt for our lifestyle choices.