It was an amazing experience to have an opportunity to have teamwork throughout this semester. The most exciting assignment I have ever had was making a video in group, which was a new experience. Truly, our marketing video project was a more fun than a presentation.

As a team, our group functioned very well right from the beginning of our video project. I was good at doing research so that I was able to contribute to our group projects. Thanks to the marketing assignments throughout the course, I came to realize my strength in research skills. However, lacking technical skills, I expected that I would have hard time in making a video.  Fortunately, one of the team members had some basic understanding of filming, so our team was able to go through technical difficulties. I was very thrilled to have a chance to learn a video editing skill by one of our member. Moreover, my responsibility in the group made me more responsible. We committed to meeting on a regular basis, once per week, and ensuring that we collaboratively contributed to our assignments. Since each member of our team has unique backgrounds and different experiences, we sometimes had differing ideas of what was the best choice to make. But, our team sincerely listened to others’ opinions, and we could reach a consensus. This teamwork experience taught me a lot about how to function as a member in a group, and I gained a deep valuable insight of marketing as well. I really enjoyed every marketing project.

I agree with Melody Han’s a blog post describing how controversial marketing strategies can poison the beauty standards in our society. As Melody mentioned in her blog posting, Victoria Secret, one of largest lingerie companies in the world, has promoted its product by creating “an illusion for females all around the world that if they wear Victoria Secret’s lingerie, they will be one step closer to those perfect women on the fashion show runway.” I totally support her idea because I believe that Victoria Secret’s marketing strategy distorted an image of beauty. Also, its advertisement is likely to mislead customers to pursue an image of Barbie doll, so called perfect women (Not necessarily true). This type of marketing which does not consider realistic image of women will encourage females to lose weight and lower their self-esteem. As Melody stated, Victoria Secret’s models do not necessarily define the beauty in our society.

Then how to address this problem? Melody argued that Victoria Secret should be encouraged to use models who have realistic body shapes. For example, instead of models with size two bodies, Victoria Secret should promote their product by using models with size three or four bodies in order not to distort an image of beauty in real. Needless to say that I agree with her suggestion, I suggest that Victoria Secret be more socially responsible by considering an impact of their advertisements on the society as a whole, rather than focusing on pursuing their sales.

Google Inc., starting from just a smart algorithm, has developed a totally new business model, has become in a few years the world leading search engine, has developed winning applications as Google Earth, Google Video, Google Maps, Gmail, and is enjoying a huge success. Google, starting from scratch, has won the challenge against a giant like Microsoft and against the previous search engine market leaders Yahoo, Lycos, Excite, and so on.

The key question is:
why the Business Model is a winning Business Model?

The answer is a complex one, and involves more factors. It’s a mix of smart decisions, excellent marketing strategy, great advisors, highly innovative and risky business model, and great products. 
But one big key reason why the Google Business Model won:

Google had – and still has – a simple, clean, clear, minimalistic user interface, no frills, just the logo and the search box – easy and fast to load. Unlike Google, the other search engines were more like generalistic portals, full of confusion, full of useless features and useless links, full of annoying banner ads, heavy and slow to load. Google had a clear understanding on psychology of perception, and how the interaction eye/brain works, while the bigger competitors didn’t.

Bottom line is: If the user visits a search engine, what he wants to get is simply that: just a search engine.

Sources:http://www.vertygoteam.com/google_marketing_strategy.php

Nationalistic marketing adds significant value to branding. By inflaming our sense of national pride, marketers can better promote their products or services. A great example of nationalistic marketing is by  Molson, the world’s seventh-largest brewing company in Canada. Recently, Molson’s beer commercial associated its brand with Canada in hopes of triggering consumers’ national pride. As a result, it experienced an increase in sales in the Canadian market. Molson had a great success thorough using its new slogan – “I am Canadian”.

Nevertheless, Molson’s success will not be sustainable unless the product carries additional value. This means that the other components of the marketing mix such as price should reflect the value of the product. Companies’ marketing tactics exciting the sense of nationalism, as a means to maximize profits, do not necessarily become a serious social problem unless it is viewed as nationalistic propaganda. On the flip side, marketing tactics appealing to patriotism would end in failure if companies do not understand customers’ dissatisfaction regarding their products or services. Therefore, no matter how well a company’s nationalistic marketing strategies are, sales would still plummet if the product itself were a disaster.

In conclusion, marketers should comprehend customers’ wants and needs in order to add value to their brand, rather than simply depending on the appeals of customers.

Sources:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/marketing/i-am-canadian-and-so-are-they-molsons-new-nationalist-pitch/article8280376/

One of rising marketing tactics is called Green Marketing. Green Marketing is one of marketing tactics that aims at promoting the environmental benefits of products, or a company’s sustainability initiatives. It continues to grow in popularity in sense that customers are increasingly integrating their environmental values into their purchasing decisions. Also, customers are willing to support companies which incorporate sustainability efforts into their product and service offerings.

For example, Scott had a great success in promoting its products by using Green Marketing. Scott launched a new line of toilet paper, paper towels, napkins, and wipes made from 40%–50% recycled content. The decision was based on research conducted on Scott’s value-minded customers: the research found that 86% are interested and 41% are very interested in products with recycled content.

Green Marketing became a mainstream, and this is really important because it helps companies promote their environment friendly products. Thus, it reduces the causes of global warming and other environmental problems or issues. Furthermore, it can be an opportunities for companies to have new market, and new target customers. Green marketing will allow companies to establish sustainable competitive advantage by reducing costs and emphasizing its social responsibility of firm.

Sources:

http://www.scottbrand.com/products/naturals

http://www.avsgroup.com/Resources/Articles/GreenMarketing.aspx

How did Kakao Talk become a great hit in South Korea? As a downloadable software application, developed in South Korea in 2010, Kakao Talk maintained its position as the No.1 mobile messenger application since many consumers viewed it as a must-have mobile application for smartphones users. Kakao Talk features services including one-on-one chats, group chats, and sending/receiving messages including photos, videos, and contact information. Currently, Kakao Talk counts approximately 70 million users, and this figure outnumbers the size of Korea’s population of 50 million. The reputation of Kakao Talk is rapidly spreading not just in South Korea but also all over the world. A statistic shows that its users spend an average of 43 minutes per day. The application is forcing us to examine its business model and marketing strategies that led to such great success. Without any doubt, Kakao Talk is an extraordinary important issue in terms of marketing.

KaKao Talk’s marketing strategy is focused on the characteristic of the messenger that allows users to enjoy instant communication; therefore, users invite their friends and this creates a positive domino effect. Users are offered free emoticons, decorations and games, which further encourages non-users to experience trials. Free services and user-friendly operations are more appealing to potential users. This communication chain led KaKao Talk to increase the number of users by dramatic figure within the short period of time and establish a broader user network. Another key point of their success is positive word of mouth spread by the users. Unlike other applications, Kakao Talk distributed free versions and updates. These strategies led the application to maintain a positive image, and users voluntarily market the application for their convenience of interaction with other people. The power of testimonials from satisfied users was tremendous enough to attract even more users. In addition, Kakao talk fulfilled many different users’ expectations through marking research. For example, Kakao Talk launched mobile games by affiliating with other game developers so that the users can compete with their friends through the online games.

Due to well-planned marketing strategies, Kakao Talk seems to continue to retain a solid foothold in the industry of mobile messenger.

Source:

http://www.arirang.co.kr/News/News_View.asp?nseq=142342&code=Ne2&category=2

http://www.kakao.com/talk/en