Author: StellaArtois

After reading my friend Kimberly Graves’ blog on Koodo Mobile ads, I felt compelled to give my insights on this topic. Kim points out the annoying side of the Koodo Mobile ads, which in fact is quite understandable. However, I see the humorous side of the ad to be more apparent. Since competition is fierce in the cell-phone market, Koodo has taken a different approach in terms of their ads as to attract the customers.

In my opinion, Koodo’s approach is actually quite similar to the approach taken by Axe. Axe’s commercial are deemed to be annoying and sexually explicit, however the humor is what makes the ads stand out. I think Koodo is also trying to appeal to customers with its humor. I agree with Kim that some of Koodo’s ad may seem annoying, however we may not even be in their target market. Thus the reason why we are not attracted towards their ads.

One of my previous article focused on Sony’s response to iphone, and now I want to analyze Nokia’s reaction to Apple’s growing sales and its status as product leader. Just 10 years ago, Nokia was seen as the leader of the cell phone world and now its influence is slowly deceasing as shown by its sales in the US. This is not just a coincidence, in fact, even Sony can also relate to losing sales to Apple.

Since Apple focuses all of its marketing effort of in iphone, it has an advantage over both Sony and Nokia. Nokia has recently started to focus on its apps and improve their Ovi app store. It announced that it is seeing around 3 million download per day and 8.5 millions a month.
Apple’s dominance in market share is evident in North America, however in all over the world Nokia still dominates the market share with around 38.6%.

However, what is worrying for Nokia is that Apple’s market share has almost tripled from last year and is continuing to increase. In my opinion, Nokia needs to challenge Apple’s iphone by coming up with a new product to match iphone’s appeal.

Here is an article talking about this new messaging service:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/8136764/Facebooks-email-service-is-about-capturing-the-next-generation-of-web-users.html

The fastest growing social network, Facebook, now wants to incorporate its network hub to include email services. With already 500 million users, Facebook’s entrance into the messaging service industry could lead to a new era for modern messaging. With its new email services, Facebook has directly challenged the likes of Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo.

In fact the co-founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, stated that they are trying to “push the way people do messaging more towards this simple, real-time, immediate personal experience.” This seems to be their competitive advantage; the idea that email services can be more personal and intimate to the users.

While doing some research, I found that the announcement of Facebook’s new plan directly affects Gmail, who recently suffered an outage and are facing difficulties retaining customers. Since over 70% of the current Facebook users use the current messaging function, with the new email service Facebook can expect to influence these people into switching from Microsoft, Yahoo etc to Facebook.

With the recent trend in increased use of smartphones, Sony has decided to expand their market share by entering the cell phone market. With devices such as PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, and the PSP, Sony has already established themselves as the product leader in the video game consoling market. With their new PSP phone, Sony had attempted to match Apple’s iphone 4.

These Smartphones will be capable of downloading and playing PSP games. It is set to be released in late 2010 and is expected to garner a lot of sales. In my opinion, this new Smartphone is targeted to the potential 15-20 young males who prefer a convenient form of video game. While doing my research, I also found that Sony’s cell phone sales had gone down 41% in 2009. This new Smartphone is probably an attempt by Sony to regain their lost sales. While evaluating this segment’s attractiveness, I am convinced that Sony is identifiable, substantial, and reachable.

However, Sony might run into problems while trying to ensure the customers remain responsive to their new Smartphone and iPhone is still regarded as the top-notch Smartphone thus the new PSP phone might not be all that profitable afterall.

Inspired by an article written by Carlo Garganese, “If Diego Milito Isn’t One Of The 23 Best Players Of 2010, Then Football Is Dead”, I felt compelled to give my insight on this issue.

Here is his article: http://www.goal.com/en/news/2724/ballon-dor/2010/10/27/2185572/ballon-dor-comment-if-diego-milito-isnt-one-of-the-23-best

One of the best players of world in 2010, Diego Milito, was excluded from the nomination for the FIFA Ballon d’Or. Despite having scored 30 goals in all competition for Inter and leading them to the League title, League cup, and the UEFA Champions League, Diego Milito wasn’t considered on of the 23 best players in the world.

While other players like Cesc Fabregas (utterly useless for Arsenal and a sub for Spain) make it to the list, I ask the question why are the worthy players left out from the list? The simple answer is that FIFA considers the marketing prospect of the nominees so they can make money from this precious award. While players like Cesc Fabregas have huge marketing potential because of media exposure, Diego Milito is a pure football player.

While Cesc Fabregas make millions promoting underwear, shirts, and shoes, Diego Milito just plays football. So what is more important playing football, scoring goals, and singlehandedly winning your team trophies? OR promoting merchandise, being a sub for a world cup winning team, and being utterly useless for your club?

Here are the stats, you be the judge:
Milito:
30 goals in all competiton, 22 in Serie A.
Serie A title, Serie Cup, and the UEFA Champions League

Fabregas:
19 goals in all competition, 15 in EPL
A useless sub for Spain’s World Cup winning team.

I realize I have made this blog directly a Milito vs. Fabregas but it was important to understand how flawed the nomination process for FIFA Balon d’Or. The negative impact of marketing in the nomination process is a disrespect to the great players like Diego Milito who despite being one of the top 5 players in the world in 2010, are not considered one of the top 23 best players in the world.

While reading David Wang’s blog on the E-book revolution, I felt compelled to give my insight on the future of physical books.

Here is his article: https://blogs.ubc.ca/corona/

In my opinion, the increase in use of ipads, smartphones, and other electronic devices does jeopardize the future of physical books. However, I don’t believe that the use of physical books will disappear anytime in the next five or even twenty years. The benefit of E-books is that it is way more convenient and cheaper than the physical books. Additionally, the use of E-books is more eco-friendly and the growing social trend of going “green” is a huge disadvantage for the physical books.

However, this growing using of smartphones and ipads are only more prevalent in the more developed countries. In the third world countries, these technological devices haven’t made as big a mark as to replacing the physical books. In fact, the majority of the population (ie. school children, college students, teachers etc) still relies on physical books as primary source of information.

I do agree with David that in the more developed countries, it may severely reduce the use of physical books in the next ten years. For me personally, E-books would be way more convenient and I am looking forward to professors in UBC using it even more.

One of the most growing trends in consumer behavior has been the concept of going “green”. This social trend impacts marketing more on a macro-environmental level. Consumers nowadays are more concerned about eco-friendly products than ever. In the last ten years, the market for eco-friendly products has grown substantially. In the wake of this new trend, Sony Ericsson has marketed their product perfectly. The O2 Eco rating system has awarded Sony Ericcson Elm as the most sustainable and eco-friendly phone.

Sony Ericcson has positioned themselves as an eco-friendly company and is planning to reduce their C20 emissions by 20% by 2015. The materials used to make this product are partly recycled plastics and less harmful chemicals are used in the manufacturing of their products. It still includes the same basic features like social networking, WIFI, a five megapixel camera etc. In my opinion, in the market dominated by blackberry and Iphone, Sony Ericcsion has focused on product differentiation by providing a “green” phone. However, it seems very likely that both Blackberry and Iphone will probably introduce their new branch of eco-friendly products in the near future to react to this trend.

So how do you compete with other top-notch vodkas?

With the slogan, “Break the silence! Unleash your inner poet, your inner philosopher, your inner flirt”, Medea Vodka has transformed its vodka by allowing people to use its integrated LED display to write messages.

The bottle can be programmed to display six messages with 255 characters each.

However, the instructions to use its LED display are a little complicated and time-consuming. Additionally, without a spell check and unable to delete/edit a message, integrating a message may be better done while sober.

Also, priced around $40, Medea has been able to create a distinct brand image for their product by associating it with top-notch technology.
While in the long run, it may fail to live up to its reputation, as people may become indifferent to their product. In the short run, this product could be heading towards a sharp increase in sales because this concept of a LED display on a vodka is a quite a fascinating one. In fact, it wouldn’t be surprising if the other vodka brand decide to integrate their vodkas with LED displays.

This is another site that talks about the benefits and disadvantages of Medea’s integration of LED display in their vodkas.

www.gizmag.com/medea-vodka-bottle-led-display/14810/

Rafael Nadal wearing his $525000 Swiss watch at the French open.



So what does it take to dress like Rafa?

A nine time Grand Slam Champion and the number one tennis player in the world, Rafa’s clothing and accessories are highly marketed commodities. Before, less than $400 was required to buy Rafa’s shoes, shirt, shorts, and rackets etc at different online stores. His new watch, RM 027 Tourbillon, has jacked up the price to over $525000; that is if you willing to spend that kind of money on a watch.

So why $525000 for a watch?

Apart from the fact that Rafa wore it, the watch has no special attributes than any other ordinary watch.  Well it is light, very light, but that is it. This recent trend of sport stars identifying themselves with a product brand has risen tremendously.  In my opinion, this can mislead many consumers into buying these products just for their favorite superstars.  As far as RM 027 Tourbillon is concerned, the product is positioned towards the upper-class young males who are probably the only ones who can afford it.

While Rafa makes millions of dollars of sponsorships from this product, he only has to pay a small price of wearing it while playing his matches.

In a recent report while playing a tournament in Toronto, Rafa’s watch was reportedly stolen. While Rafa has already received a replacement for the stolen watch, many believe this was a publicity stunt from the watch company to generate interest in their product.

Let me know what you guys think

My last article focused on the effects of marketing in football and especially Real Madrid’s innovative marketing strategy. This week, we will look into the impact that promotions and merchandising had on the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Football is the most watched sport in the world, and the World Cup its most important competition. With over 400 millions viewers per match and further 700 million more who visited South Africa, the 2010 FIFA World Cup provided a host of opportunities for Fifa’s official marketing partners like Coca Cola, Adidas, Emirates etc.

Held in South Africa, Coke and Adidas created ads centered on the bandwagon of Pride for Africa. For example watch the ad below,

Coke specifically chose the promotional anthem, Waving Flag by K’nann, to match the mood of the World Cup. This particular ad featured as a global anthem for all Coke commercials for the 2010 World Cup.  In fact, a recent report showed that Coke’s global sales had gone up 5% boosted by the World Cup marketing campaign. Similar growth in sales was reported by Adidas. Here is Adidas’ official 2010 Fifa commercial:

In today’s world, product promotion gets even more focus than the product quality itself.  A company doesn’t just sell a product; it sells an image of the company itself.  Even Fifa, the international governing body of football, advertises itself and earns millions of dollars each year.  In conclusion, I would just like to mention that most of the official ads for the World Cup were of high standard and even I felt compelled to buy some of the World Cup merchandising.

Let me know what your reactions were to the commercials during the 2010 World Cup.