Wheeler's Blog

As so many other great thinkers and inventors people try to emulate their thought process. So with the recent passing of Steve Jobs who will be remembered for a long time as many things included being a savy marketer. So as Merril Mascarenhas writes in his blog post on the CMA Blog there are three major things that can help you create a better marketing strategy. Therefore, here is what Meril Mascarenhas thinks you should consider when you ask the question ‘What would Steve Jobs do?’:

1) “Simple can be harder than complex. You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end.” – Steve Jobs (Standford commencement speech)

2) “A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” -Eric Schmidt (Executive Chairman of Google and former Apple Board Member)

3) “Creativity is about connecting things.” -Steve Jobs speaking to Tim Cook

I look at these three suggestions and think (like Steve Jobs may have) lets simply it some more, so here are my three rewrites:

1) Clean and Simple

2) People don’t always know what they want, so show them

3) Look for connections

To me these all seem like great tips for any current or aspiring marketer but I think the most important point to remember going forward is that despite the title of this article you need to be a leader and not a follower. So don’t think about what other people would do but rather what you would do. Therefore, hopefully you can then internalize these points/suggestions and make your own that will make you a leader in the future!

Okay so it is about time that I jumped on the bandwagon.  That is right I am going to talk about Molson Canadian. A company that like many others in Introduction to Marketing is constantly referred to as one of those marketing savvy companies (Apple, Microsoft, lululemon, and Coca-Cola are other examples). These companies are recognized by everyone in class and coincidentally extremely successful. However, class aside when I say bandwagon I am more referring to the multiple blogs already written about Molson Canadian. Just to name a few of the many there is: Dominique Bujold’s Blog, Kristel Co So’s Comm296 Blog, Masakit9284, Alan Chu’s blog, Judd Grossman, David Hammond’s Blog.

Most of these blogs look at the branding and commercials of Molson Canadian talk about Molson being “Canada’s Beer” or the “essence of Canada” but as it was pointed out in Judd Grossman blog Molson technically isn’t even Canadian owned.

In fact, Moosehead is the biggest Canadian owned beer maker.  Nonetheless, as I have learned this year perceived value is the most important thing when consumers make purchasing decisions and creating a strong perceived value is something that Molson does better then most. Canadian has a strong brand connection to Molson.

A similar example is the clothing industry, as people tend to have a preference to wearing certain brands and through wearing them feel connected to that’s brands ideals. Molson connects its’ consumers to being Canadian, which is an ideal that is more widespread then most other brand ideals in Canada. Making Molson a force to be reckoned with but in my mind also a susceptible target to attack ads. For example what if Moosehead could leverage their Canadian ownership to strengthen their brand and at the same time undermine Molson as being none Canadian? (Just some food for thought)

Oh and of course what would a Molson Canadian blog post be without the obligatory highly toted video, so here is my personal favorite to end off with:

Molson Canadian (American workplace)

Have you wondered if you would be any different if you had a different name? I sure have, my parents told me that there was a big debate between naming me Sean or Stuart. Luckily, they named me Sean I like the name because I feel that it defines me in a small way and to me Stuart sounds like a nerdy name (sorry if your name is Stuart and your reading this).

In theory your name shouldn’t matter, however, as most people know when it comes to getting a job unfortunately some things matter like your sex, skin colour, height, and weight at least statistically speaking. This doesn’t mean that the world is full of discriminating, sexist, and racist employers, it is just that there are correlated relationships that exists in many people’s minds when it comes to first impressions, that we have little control over. I wish it was differenent and that the world was more equal and people didn’t have predispositions but it is something that exist currently. So it helps to be aware of it, if we ever want to change.

So what does this mean about names, well according to a report done by CTV news in 2009 your name matter a lot to getting that call back. Watch the video below:

Resumes with English names more likely to be noticed

So obviously our own personal names carry certain connotations about ourselves so what about brand names?

According to Katie Dergousoff’s Blog and a New Yorker article (http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/10/03/111003fa_fact_colapinto) names are essential to defining a brand. In fact it seems that Lexicon had made a global business based on coming up with successful brand names for company’s like: Blackberry, Dasani, and Pentium. I would site the name of some great products that had horrible names but what’s the point you probably would have never heard of them right!

So next time you are interviewing people for a position or maybe are coming up a brand name for your new company remember there is more to a name then the letters that compose it.

Okay so since this my first blog and I want to be cool I am going to start off with a flashy subject copyright law! Okay settle down I know this sounds boring but bear with me for a little bit. In our first class of the year we talked about the Old Spice marketing campaign from 2010 and how successful it was from the commercials to youtube it was incredible (I had the old spice ringtone). Anyways if you don’t know what I am talking about check out one of the short commercials here and I am sure you will recognize it:

Old Spice Guy

So as the popularity of this old spice guy promotional campaign grew countless parodies were made including one of my favorites from sesame street (you know you have made it when sesame street does a parody):

Sesame Street: Smell Like a Monster

So obviously there is nothing wrong with parodies as they help draw more attention to the brand but what about other brands that rip off the idea or concept? Do those help the original brand in any way and should they even be allowed? Take a look at this Dairy Queen commercial for example:

Dairy Queen Commercial: Chop

Now you may be wondering is that copyright infringement? Well no it isn’t (I looked it up) and according to both Canadian and American law you can copyright/trademark names, faces (designs), lyrics/jingles etc. However, you cannot trademark or copyright an idea and that is essential what the old spice guy is an idea. You may be able to copyright his likeness and name but not his actions or swagger.

So where does this leave us? Well Dairy Queen legally took Old Spice’s Idea and re worked it a little but judging by the youtube views (several million compared to a couple hundred of thousand), you can never beat the guy who gets there first.