Sheida's Blog

Read about me observing the world around me.

A Time to Reflect

Posted on April 8, 2013 by sheids

As is the case with any large project, and a group one at that, I met the Marketing Plan assignment with apprehension. I suppose it was a mix of the unknown future group dynamics as well as the incoming workload that I foresaw, and I won’t lie, it hasn’t been just one time within the past couple of years that I found myself finishing a group project with no value attained from the entire lengthy process.

However, I was very fortunate in two ways.

First, immediately upon meeting my group I knew that we would end up working well together. Maybe it was because of some particular bad experiences that a few of us had had with other group members lately, but we entered this project with an open mind, a flexible attitude, and an overall enthusiasm for building relationships through the work that we did. It’s definitely a mindset that I will do my best to spread within future team activities.

Second, I was fortunate because this project legitimately showed me the link between the material that was taught in class and that which is applied to the real world. As Tamar mentioned during the beginning of the semester, a marketing plan is exactly what is done by Marketing professionals in the work force. Although background research was something that we all first groaned at, it ended up being an engaging task once our group got into the groove of things, some of which was due to the course material, and the rest of which was due to our attitude and our decision from the beginning to not make this project purely work, but something that would pique our interest and lead to a fun experience.

That leads me to the last thing that I took away from this marketing plan assignment — which is that a little bit of extra creativity can lead to a very memorable project. As we chose a women’s lingerie company (with a group of 2 guys) and chose a talk-show theme for our video, we learned that alongside the learning and the team-building, a lot of good times can be shared amongst a group of peers working together.

New and Old — and They’re Both Hilarious

Posted on April 8, 2013 by sheids

When someone says “Old Spice advertisement”, what’s the first thing that you think of? Does it look like something similar to this guy?

Of course, you may have also noticed that in recent months, Isaiah Mustafa (better known as the “Old Spice Guy”) has ceased to appear in the daily ads for the company.

So what is Old Spice doing to keep up with its commercials that target the typical low-to-middle income North American man wanting to feel masculine, fresh, and attractive — and still with that prevalence of comedic exaggeration?

See for yourself:

David Griner, frequent blogger on advertising news website “Adweek”, features this “fascinatingly bizarre” ad and goes on to state that Old Spice has mastered this art of illogical, often surreal theme in their advertising. The most interesting comment that Griner makes, in my opinion, is that despite all the strangeness and humour, the ad does not alleviate attention from the product itself.

I had a brief discussion about this commercial with a friend of mine, and she claimed that the ad was too “out there”, uncomfortable, and she couldn’t see how — in terms of the AIDA Model — it could possibly help to link the “interest” with the “desire” and/or “action” of a viewer. I had to completely disagree with her and pick David Griner’s side. In fact, I think with its farce-like advertisements, Old Spice automatically sparks desire and subsequent action towards its products. The company uses pure entertainment as a way of penetrating through all the noise in the advertising world and drawing the attention of the Generation Y men it targets, who are known to be impatient and very sceptical towards brands. With this emotional appeal, it not only instill its brand name, but a positive image linked to it, in the minds of the men who frequent drug stores in search of the next soap bar that will give them a fresh, alluring scent.

Old Spice is doing it right — both with the old and new way.

“Slow-mercial”-izing in a Fast-Paced World?

Posted on April 2, 2013 by sheids

Browsing through some classmates’ blogs, my attention was caught by one of Tiffany’s posts — regarding a video made by Volkswagen, introducing their new concept called the “Slowmercial” that is being used to mitigate the problem of viewers fast-forwarding through advertisements.

Tiffany discusses how this style of advertising will garner more brand exposure due to its motionless text and extended exposure of the product’s message, and I do agree to some extent. It is definitely innovation in terms of advertising in the modern-day, however, I question its effectiveness. In an environment filled with individuals weary of advertising who are — as Volkswagen claims — “fast-forwarding their TV commercials 80% of the time”, is it really a good idea to tease them with the idea that they’ll never be able escape from that suffocating grip of companies trying to force their messages down their throats?

Maybe I’m speaking a little harshly, and maybe I’m thinking pessimistically due to my own exhaustion but I feel that if it were me, I would only feel frustration upon attempting to fast-forward my TV ads only to see an unchanging Volkswagen logo linger there for 5 seconds, as if the company is attempting to outsmart me. And believe me, I actually take pleasure in watching advertisements — but when you don’t want to see them, you just don’t want to see them.

How Social Media can be Revamped

Posted on March 19, 2013 by sheids

Let’s face it: social media marketing is overdone. Even the least innovative businesses nowadays are quick to spring up a Facebook and Twitter page upon incarnation. It’s work often done by unpaid interns, and I don’t think I’m being ignorant by saying that the whole strategy no longer has a unique allure to younger, tech-savvy markets as it once did.

Enter Lavan, a Vancouver-based fragrance and bath+body company that prides itself on its luxurious scents and natural products made of ingredients from the Dead Sea and surrounding areas. Sure, the company has its customary Facebook and Twitter pages but what Lavan does differently is it’s blog. Lavan has created a person, a young, health-conscious and self-pampering woman called Lady Lavan, who serves two important purposes for the company:

1. She is a key communicator. In addition to robotic emails and Tweets, the activities and new products of Lavan are updated through this fictional woman — one who has everything from a favourite sport to a relationship status. She appeals to and connects with consumers and even acts as a role model, explaining skincare regimens and her love for the luxurious products of the store.

2. Lady Lavan is a brand personality — in an almost literal sense. She represents what the company stands for, but in the most human way possible. All the brand values that Lavan could have portrayed with a simple sign hung up in the store located in downtown Vancouver, Lavan presents them through this woman. One question in her interview posted on her blog asks what her motto is, to which she responds “I believe in Good Karma and in being good to others, to nature and to ourselves.”

Taken from her Facebook page, this photo is a direct example of the illustration of Lady Lavan, and how she is directly used to convey Lavan (the company)’s values.

In a world that is increasingly infiltrated by mechanized computers and faceless technology, marketing tactics like this are what leave an impression.

The Soft Side to Marketing

Posted on February 9, 2013 by sheids

Everyone knows that major sports games and tournaments call for some of the greatest commercials to ever be broadcast on TV. But out of the multitudes that are shown with up to millions of dollars invested in each of them, which are the advertisements that really stick with the audiences sitting on their couches and waiting for the games to come back on?

Well, during the London Olympic Games in 2012, here’s one particular ad that stood out to me above all the others:

It’s shot so cinematically and partnered so well with the piano in the background that you forget that it’s actually a commercial that you’re watching until the Proctor & Gamble logo briefly pops up at the end.

But what’s the point of the clip? It’s not like its advertising any product or a service, and it’s not like P&G just wanted to take the opportunity to show off their show-biz skills.

The answer is brand recognition. P&G’s present in so many product categories and in so many countries these days that it’s hard to tell exactly what the company is and what it stands for. So what P&G does is to convey its purpose of “touching lives in small but meaningful ways” in a way that will resonate with a vast majority of the audience of 2012’s largest sporting event — the athletes, the mothers, and everyone watching them. Through making a TV advertisement that strikes a chord with the affective component of millions of viewers around the world, P&G not only delivers its purpose, but it shapes the attitudes of viewers to see this multinational, multi-billion dollar company as one with a cherished, sensitive regard for its customers.

How “Ethical” Are They Allowed to Call Themselves Now?

Posted on January 22, 2013 by sheids

While there is no doubt that being acquired by a company as much history and global recognition as L’Oreal provides innumerable expansion opportunities for The Body Shop, concerns have arisen since the acquisition in 2006, as outlined by Cosmetics Design-Europe editor Simon Pitman, due to the “seemingly opposing values” of the companies.

We all know that The Body Shop provides affordable, accessible skincare and beauty products with an ethical stance on their trade and development policies.

When Googling “ethical beauty products”, it is no surprise to have this image show up in the top results.

Then we have L’Oreal — offering a vast range of beauty products with presence in 130 countries, who also pride themselves on a “Code of Ethics” — who have been known to test some of their ingredients on animals.

While it has been verified that the company still maintains its cruelty-free policies, the issue lies with the image that The Body Shop had, in essence, spent decades building with its clientele, and that could be tarnished through ownership from a company with a slightly-tarnished name. When thinking of The Body Shop’s target market, one thinks of two groups: beauty-product consumers with a low budget, and philanthropic shoppers. How inclined will these conscientious shoppers will be to support one company, knowing that it directly supports the activities of other? I myself work in a retail position of a different skincare company, which happens to be situated right across one of The Body Shop’s locations, and I have spoken to several women who have entered our store and purchased products claiming that they are doing so because they no longer support The Body Shop and its, essentially, “unethical” ownership.

L’Oreal is working to correct its reputation, having recently donated over $1 million to anti-cruelty efforts, but activists call it an evasive technique.

Now, figures show that The Body Shop has been increasing its locations at an annual rate of about 8% from 2006 to 2008, meaning that L’Oreal has been effective in its global expansion. But I wonder, is it worth gaining these new customers who are mainly drawn to the affordability of the products, at the expense of those who supported the company’s ethical policies to the core?

Words of Advice by Seth Godin

Posted on November 25, 2011 by sheids

Called by American Way Magazine “America’s Greatest Marketer”, Seth Godin is an entrepreneur who founded the website Squidoo, has written 13 best-selling novels about entrepreneurship and marketing, and whose blog, containing more than 2500 entries, contains frequent updates about his unique business, ideas, and philosophies.

Screenshot of the homepage of Godin's website -- www.sethgodin.com

In his most recent entry, he concretely states three of his personal business philosophies and opinions:

1) “It’s almost never about technology.” Godin claims that enterprises depend too much on their “innovative” technology for their success.I completely agree with his notion that while technology is important, other key factors in success are marketing, company structure, connections, and commitment.

2) Keep your focus on your internal affairs. While it is easy to get distracted by competitors, what Godin has been doing is focusing 100% of his small team’s efforts on keeping their own consumers satisfied. He supports the notion that a brand represents to each consumer how they feel about the company, and states that by improving these feelings, simple word-of-mouth will ensure growth.

3) Narrow down on one problem at a time; avoid “Plan Bs”. Tackling one problem at a time, simply because there is no other route for the company, leads to focus, dedication, and motivation. He claims that this was the reason for Google’s success, because the company only had two routes: to win big or fail trying. No back-up plan, nothing to fall back on.

Reading these key notions, I am not surprised to hear about Seth Godin’s success in the business world. No doubt, reading up on the opinions of many others like him, an entrepreneur will be prepared for anything.

Is there anything that doesn’t have an App these days?

Posted on November 24, 2011 by sheids

In Fairhaven, Washington, Dr. Patrick J. Gagnon, a radiation oncologist, amazes patients when going over their scans; all he does is smoothly whip out his iPhone and view the scans on an application called Mobile MIM. The app (created by MIM Software) is essentially a portable “diagnostic medical instrument” (Eisenberg), coming in slightly-different versions for doctors and patients. Not only does the app make it incredibly easy to store scans and/or share them between patients, doctors, and even different hospitals, but the pay-as-you-go routine makes it efficient and completely affordable as well. For example, it takes no more than $1 (Eisenberg) for a scan to be uploaded onto the app, ready for unlimited usage. This step taken by MIM Software ensures the app’s popularity amongst not only wealthy doctors, but low-to-medium income individuals as well.

Although the application did not receive clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration for two and a half years, the creation and growing popularity of Mobile MIM has indeed paved the way for more medical applications in the future. Dr. Iltifat Husain, editor in chief of iMedicalApps, stated in a New York Times article that with the involvement of the FDA, demand will surely increase for these apps from both doctors and patients alike.

I personally sense the establishment of future mobile-medical enterprises.

Decorating and Mood Make all the Difference, Timmy’s Finally Recognizes

Posted on November 13, 2011 by sheids

Recently, Tim Horton’s has announced that they will be redesigning the layout for new locations and renovating old ones in order to move from their “fast-food” vibe and to create a more homely, comfortable, and attractive setting — one where consumers will want to stay for long periods of time in, therefore spend more money. As stated in Hannah Skurnik’s recent blog post, this strategy seems strikingly similar to that of Starbucks, their main rival coffee company. However, I agree with Hannah in saying that this is an extremely intelligent move on the Canadian coffee company’s part, since as she so poignantly re-stated from one of our guest speakers in class, “a brand is the way that product makes you feel.” Therefore by creating coffee shops with warm, cozy, and up-scale design and decor, not only would more wealthy and up-scale consumers be attracted to the stores, increasing the loyal consumer base of Tim Horton’s, but also ensuring increasing revenue due to the fact that their already-loyal customers will feel more at home in their locations, desiring to stay there longer and actually wanting to spend that extra two dollars on another large coffee three hours after staying in the store.

As is obviously seen here, the ambiance of each coffee shop is drastically different, Starbucks definitely being the more welcoming of the two. After their renovations, Tim Horton's hopes to fix this problem.

Comfort + Health + High Costs = Success?

Posted on November 10, 2011 by sheids

For ECCO shoes, yes. For over 40 years, this company has been using innovation (the key characteristic of an entrepreneurial company) in its designs to provide consumers with the greatest comfort and quality for each pair of shoes made. As stated in their Canadian website, “ECCO is the only major shoe manufacturer to own and manage every step in the shoe-making process.” While prices of the shoes are high (a single pair of women’s flats can cost $160), offering potential risk for the company’s success, they justify it in their company philosophy by saying that by purchasing ECCO shoes, a consumer is “Living Life Intelligently!”

ECCO does not only base its company off of comfort and flexibility, but also technological innovation. In this section of their Canadian website, they list all of their shoes with cutting-edge technology incorporated into them. An example are their GORE-TEX boots, which literally contain billions of pores per square centimetre in order to ensure that that any humidity in the shoe will be vaporized, keeping the user’s feet dry, light, and comfortable.

The process of a GORE-TEX shoe