The moment we submitted our final video project, I had a sense of fulfillment. Our marketing team did a great job on assignment 3. Most of us really into digital media and this kind of project that everyone can participate in rather than writing standard papers. It is a perfect chance for everyone to express creativity.

After doing research of companies on the list, we chose ZARA because of the potential increase in the market. While each project needs a timeline, deadlines, and clear goals, a project leader does more than keep track of the organizational aspects of the project. Due to the challenge to accommodate everyone’s schedule, we struggled to address every single problem in the regular meetings. The way I see it now, a successful project coordinator is able to facilitate the coordination of the team in a way that maximizes the team’s potential.

Throughout the whole project, I started to think like a real marketer. I consider more from a consumer’s perspective and take effort in adding value to the product. Only until apply the concept from the text book on the real project, did I understand how the real business works.

All in all, I really enjoy the learning experience throughout the term. I was thinking marketing is just about advertising and retaining customers, but now I start thinking more in-depth consumer and value-based aspect of it all.

Reading through my fellow classmate Ying Jiang’s blog: To unscramble Chinese mentality of purchasing luxuries. I came up with a new question. Recent data strongly suggests that China’s luxury market is still in slowdown mode, but while some companies are seeing a strong slump, a clear set of winners is making it through 2013 with solid sales The first blows came last year, with an economic slowdown and jitters about the political transition. Now, a crackdown on corrupt gift-giving and a populist backlash against ostentation have added to the woes.

The outlook for luxury-goods firms appears to have dimmed. Internet users have posted incriminating pictures, for example of poorly paid bureaucrats wearing suspiciously pricey watches, which have caused heads to roll. Mobs have also disrupted banquets deemed to be too lavish, on occasions forcing officials to their knees to beg for forgiveness.

The bottom line for the luxury sector is that the numbers show that even if China’s slowdown is long-term, brands with the right marketing strategies and an understanding of Chinese luxury consumers can still experience solid growth. According to the recent survey, the Chinese growth rate was the third-highest factor in cause for optimism about the global luxury market.

In addition, companies worried about China growth should take a look at the global picture: Chinese customers may not be buying as much luxury at home, but they’re certainly spending it abroad as the world’s largest-spending bloc of tourists. As a result, brands must focus on the Chinese consumer on an international level in order to truly cash in on the market’s high long-term growth potential.

China Luxury Market

According to the blog “Should Prescription Drug Ads Be Reined In?”, some people argue that drug advertising is a way to educate consumers, while others say it just increase the sales and can be misleading to customers.

In the same week were published that the company Janssen, division of Johnson & Johnson will be fined a $1.7 billion, for misbranding a schizophrenia drug and that the FDA – Food & Drug Administration – American regulatory Agency launched a platform named: “BadAd” dedicated to “truthful prescription drug Advertising & Promotion”.

The FDA, monitors the information that pharmaceutical companies give to health care professionals (HCPs) about prescription drugs. It is surely no coincidence that, at the same time as this landmark decision, the FDA launched a platform for an e-learning course for medical professional to be fully aware of the approved uses of pharmaceutical products and the limitations of use. In this way, in the case of over claiming made by a pharmaceutical company can be challenged and minimized by FDA monitoring http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm211791.htm

Created in conjunction with MedScape, the e-learning course is designed to alert healthcare providers and students to potentially untruthful drug ads and promotional materials.

The course offers continuing medical education credit for doctors and continuing education credit for other healthcare providers. While it was developed with healthcare providers in mind, anyone can take the course. The FDA is hoping that reaching students now with ‘Bad Ad’ information will have a career-long effect on how they view prescription drug promotion..

In the same press release the American regulatory Agency is complaining that many consumer advertisements for prescriptions drugs–on TV, in magazines or online represent a budget that is less than the Advertising & Promotional investments for healthcare providers. Pharmaceutical companies, in the USA, actually spend more money advertising to health care professionals than they spend advertising to consumers.

Direct-to-consumer advertising remains an important method of marketing drugs. The industry spent $2.4 billion on television ads, in 2011, according to Nielsen. However this is a 23% drop from the $3.1 billion spent in 2007.

The FDA attitude seems peculiar in Europe where the Direct to Consumer (DTC) promotion is forbidden for prescription drugs in order to better contain healthcare costs.

http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/04/should-prescription-drug-ads-be-reined-in/?_r=0

The Apple iPhone 5S and 5C models went on sale last month, and by all accounts, it was a very successful launch. More than nine million units were sold in the first three days. What made this launch interesting to me was that Apple was introducing two different models, ostensibly to appeal to different buyers. However, people only (generally) need one smartphone and there was a possibility that potential buyers of the 5S would buy the lower-priced 5C instead. Apple didn’t disclose the individual sales figures, but it appears both did well and the 5S is bumping up against supply constraints.

The 5C costs less to produce than the current iPhone 5 model, it comes in a range of colors, and was designed to take advantage of the markets in Asia, so Apple did have some very compelling reasons to introduce that phone. But the risk of cannibalization was real, even for a company as adept at marketing as Apple. But so far, Apple seems to have avoided that fate.

But this brings us to a broader question. How can technology companies effectively bring to market different solutions that appeal to different buyer segments, specifically more cost-conscious or budget-constrained ones, without running the risk of cannibalizing sales from the higher-priced offerings? And conversely, how can they market effectively to the more budget-conscious segment without making it appear like they are simply providing the “lite” or “junior varsity” version of the premium solution?

More often than not, launching a new solution targeted at a different market segment doesn’t require creation of an entirely new piece product or methodology. It often just requires creative packaging and pricing. When that is the case, adherence to these principles becomes even more important, and you probably need to take them a step further. Unless you have a really compelling reason to do so, you shouldn’t go out of your way to promote it as being a new solution on your Web site or in your campaigns. If your solution has a reputation as being expensive and complicated, it might be worth specifically calling it out as a separate offer in all of your inbound and outbound marketing efforts. But if that isn’t the case, then taking a more subtle approach, at least initially, makes more sense.

Any small business knows that marketing expenditures are hard to justify. The most cost-effective marketing is an idea that can be spread by word-of-mouth. It can engage Facebook friends, Twitter followers, local press, and national media. YouTube videos made with smartphone cameras and cheap props can generate as much buzz as a $1 million TV ad campaign. Staging the campaign at the right time, in the right place, can also up your visibility.

Lately, I happened to find a commercial of Heineken called “Walk in the fridge” which is a great example. “Walk in the fridge” featured a group of girlfriends jumping up and down and shrieking when they see the hostess’ new walk-in closet. In another room, the men have their own moment when they see the host’s walk-in refrigerator lined with shelves of ice-cold Heineken. Heineken then grew the viral tail of the idea even longer. In 2010, it built a walk-in fridge that it took to beer festivals, allowing groups to parody the ad and upload their efforts to YouTube. The company also created a longer video showing guys installing walk-in fridge in an apartment, with the box extending outside the building with no visible means of support.

heineken

This is a great example of taking one winning idea and finding ways to keep it fresh over time. And costs are minimal when customers who are shooting and uploading their own videos produce much of the effort. The success of this advertisement lies on the audiences’ preexisting stereotypes on masculinity versus femininity. The female characters in the commercial are shown to express their exhilaration in sight of a closet filled with clothes and fashion products, suggesting that fashion and beauty products represent objects of femininity. On the other hand, the men in the video demonstrate an equal measure of excitement when coming across a walk-in fridge loaded with Heineken beer. Heineken is delivering its message very clearly: “Beer makes men as happy as women do when comes to clothes and fashion”.

Although smoking remains the greatest threat to public health in Canada, poor eating habits, physical inactivity and their contribution to obesity are also critical public health challenges. The mass media is in the business of affecting how and what people think and pose great impact on the way people live.  However, do all the companies take our healthy lifestyle into consideration?

Android is the operating system that powers over 1 billion smartphones and tablets. Lately, Android has teamed up with Nestle Kit Kit to launch their new operating system ‘Kit Kat’. Android and Kit Kat stand to gain from each other’s strong brand presence, as well as the media coverage they have and will receive from the joint venture.

Although this makes business sense, is it ethical? A lot of the world has a problem with sugar consumption so attaching a sugary product like Kit Kat to an everyday product like a phone may send the wrong message about how regularly you should eat chocolate.

There may always be marketers who aim to deceive and cheat though, there are many ways that a company can conduct their advertising campaigns in a morally sound fashion. Recent years, Coca-cola used the advertising slogan “Have a Coke and hit the gym” to boost sales. In light of our nation’s obesity epidemic, the head honchos at Coke have revamped the brand’s advertising, with a focus on how to incorporate Coca-Cola products into a healthy lifestyle. I do hope that this type of marketing inspires other brands, because with many brands taking this social angle may just result in some massive social change.

                      coca-cola

sources:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=zybnaPqzJ6s

http://inhabitat.com/coca-cola-launches-natural-healthy-coca-cola-life/

http://www.coca-colacompany.com/sustainabilityreport/me/responsible-marketing.html#section-our-guidelines-for-advertising-in-schools

Welcome to UBC Blogs. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!