Sydney Ren's Blog

COMM296 Reflection

November 29th, 2013 § 0 comments § permalink

Is it the end of term already?

My group chose Groupon for our project because we thought it would be interesting since they rely mostly on word-of-mouth marketing.

In Assignment 1, we researched Groupon using a variety of sources: company website and statements, library resources and online databases, like eMarketer. It was interesting for us to learn how Groupon’s business model works and how many partnerships Groupon has with other companies. It wasn’t surprising to us that an overwhelming majority of Groupon users were women; as a group we discussed heavily our own Groupon experiences :). Because we had all used Groupon before, sometimes we had trouble keeping our experiences separate from the facts about the company and its competitors, but tried to be as objective as possible.

In Assignment 2, we targeted males of the same demographic and lifestyle of Groupon’s existing female consumers. We had to justify the segment by finding data that supports the male segment to be substantial, profitable, reachable, and responsive. An interesting subject that we ended up reading about was differences and similarities in female and male consumer behaviour.

The video or Assignment 3 was probably the most enjoyable experience. Our group came up with many ideas during our brainstorming meeting, and was extremely productive in writing the script, filming, and editing the video. We created an investigative news story, filmed completely at UBC. Somehow, with five group members, we were able to portray 11 characters with the help of disguises and props.

Charlie and Thomas in disguise 🙂

Katarina and Thomas in the paintball scene

Me and Angela as news anchors

Overall, I think the marketing plan assignment was well-designed and got students to apply the frameworks and concepts we had learned in class.

Virgin America’s Take on Safety

November 24th, 2013 § 0 comments § permalink

How many of us honestly pay attention to the flight attendants when they demonstrate how to use a life-vest? Like this author from Marketo’s blog writes, Virgin America brings the human element into advertising by making an informative advertisement that consumers can hum, sing, dance, and ultimately, relate to. Virgin had a plan to get people thinking about safety again – they launched the first ever musical safety video, which features notable choreographers and dancers from the popular show So You Think You Can Dance and singers from Idol grooving their way through all the required safety features in a humorous manner.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtyfiPIHsIg

It was shocking to most viewers that Virgin is not just using the video as a PR campaign; the video will in fact be aired on flights starting by the end of this month. Personally, I believe Virgin is the only airline that can pull off these unexpected and unusual campaigns. In a highly standardized and regulated industry, Virgin has always been a standout from it’s good-humoured founder to it’s daring, cheeky, red uniforms designed by Vivienne Westwood, renowned British fashion designer credited for making modern punk mainstream. We all remember when Richard Branson dressed in drag as a female stewardess for losing a bet to CEO of AirAsia, Tony Fernandes. Given their eccentric brand image, the #VXsafetydance video was barely a gamble for Virgin and fit within their brand’s culture effectively.

The response to the safety video was practically all positive. YouTube comments stated, “Why can’t all airlines be like this?”. However, I wondered if the flashy video detracted from the safety aspect. If I watched this safety video on a flight, I would be too entertained to know where the safety exits around me are, for example. Despite these issues, the video has become a viral hit, garnering almost 7 million views on YouTube alone with many more shares on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites.

La Montre Première

October 28th, 2013 § 0 comments § permalink

A girl can dream, right?

This past year, Chanel re-issued its original Première watch, which was the first watch model the company ever created in 1987. The original Première was inspired by the octagonal shape of the No 5 perfume bottle’s stopper, which was originally inspired by the shape of Place Vendôme as seen below:

Place Vendôme, Paris, France

Expected from the luxury brand, the new Première watch looks classic, and chic – truly a Chanel creation. The proportions are slimmer and more delicate than the original, a stark contrast to the chunky, flashy watches other luxury brands offer. The watch also stands out from Chanel’s popular J12 unisex watch model. The Première’s product website beautifully showcases the design inspiration behind the 2 new basic models in steel (Chanel pearls) or yellow gold with black accents (black apparel, gold chain bag, gold jewelry, No 5 perfume), and the most coveted diamond-set version. Besides these models, the watch has up to 14 customized versions – a different look for each woman.

Before this campaign, Chanel’s watches were arguably in the plateau area of the maturity stage in the product life cycle. The re-designed watch effectively extends the product life cycle of the French couturière’s watches. The new Première watch increases the number of users by appealing to a much younger market and also increases the frequency of use by positioning itself as an everyday watch that could be worn to work and to a dinner party (as opposed to a jewelry watch). This line extension’s purpose to extend the product life cycle can be seen in the Première’s promotion video, which reveals gorgeous, fashionable young women sporting the watch doing quotidien things like grocery shopping or calling over a waiter.

Coca-Cola’s Brand Association

October 20th, 2013 § 0 comments § permalink

In response to classmate Kate Gao’s September blogpost about greenwashing terms, Coca-Cola literally greenwashes an entire neighbourhood in Lithuania through their Roll Out Happiness stunt, part of their Where Will Happiness Strike Next? campaign. Watch as a whimsical Coca-Cola truck temporarily installs some green turf along with a vending machine that dispenses free Coke when people took off their shoes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ih0Drtuufc

While perhaps this stunt was not meant to greenwash, it effectively associates the Coca Cola brand with a few things: happiness, the outdoors, and ultimately, the colour green. The campaign targets the behavioural aspect of consumer attitude in order to influence consumer buying behaviour.

Personally, I associate the colour green with the following terms: natural, healthy, outdoors, calm, growth, and uplifting. In contrast, when I think about Coca Cola, these terms come to mind: red, sugar, refreshing, energy, and happiness. By default, green and Coca Cola’s signature red are opposites of each other on the colour wheel. However, Coca Cola’s green initiatives and campaigns try to merge the different positive associations of both colours under its own brand. These campaigns aim to maintain the core values of the brand while jumping onto the larger bandwagons of healthy eating and sustainability.

A recent ad for Coca-Cola made by Johnny Kelly, the creator behind Chipotle’s popular Back to the Start campaign, equates happiness, movement, and Coca-Cola – these are ultimately the brand associations Coca-Cola wants.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkzFLkUA97A

#makeitcount

October 11th, 2013 § 0 comments § permalink

In 2012, Nike gave Casey Neistat, a New York-based filmmaker, a budget to make an advertisement for the #makeitcount campaign and the Nike FuelBand. The video shows 10 days of Casey running around the world on Nike’s budget with quick cuts, daredevil stunts, a pulsing dance track, and inspirational quotes that fit the theme both the #makeitcount campaign and the original Just Do It slogan. The video feels spontaneous – perfect for Nike’s adrenaline-filled, fitness-loving target market.

The reaction, as suggested by the 10 million combined views on Nike and Casey’s YouTube channels, was explosive. It’s inspiring and motivating, raved fans. It’s a conceited, expensive travel log, claimed critics. Many pointed out that Casey isn’t seen with the Nike FuelBand, or with any other Nike apparel for that matter.

Two questions pop into my mind after watching this again. Was it really spontaneous? Casey stated that he came up with the overall idea of the video on the run. He also claimed it was a risk because Nike didn’t know about his plans. I don’t believe that Nike didn’t know about the concept from the start. Nike chose Casey for a reason; the directors must have seen his YouTube videos and decided that they wanted a similar video for the ad.

More importantly, however, was it effective? The ad was supposed to showcase the FuelBand and support the #makeitcount campaign. I think the ad only accomplished the latter, but since Nike still benefited overall from the campaign, I believe the video was extremely effective. Casey produced an uninhibited ad that spoke to Nike’s target market, and that’s what matters. The 10 million views is a testament to how effective the ad was and still is for Nike.

Astroturfing? Silly Name, Serious Business

September 25th, 2013 § 1 comment § permalink

Yelp, TripAdvisor, and Urbanspoon are online review websites that people resort to when seeking a third opinion. However, to what extent can we trust these reviews, which are posted by complete strangers? Someone once told me they thought 15% of Yelp reviews were fake, which seems ridiculous already.

Companies make money based on the consumers’ perception of the brand. Perception also includes how consumers expect their product or service to be of a particular quality. So it is shocking, but surely not surprising, that some companies have secretly paid for positive reviews, and even negative reviews for competitors. Companies providing false reviews have become more sophisticated and many false reviews now slip through algorithms designed to weed them out. There’s even a term for this practice: astroturfing.

Just this week, 19 businesses were discovered to have provided false reviews in an operation run by the New York Attorney General. The consequences were steep: $350,000+ in penalties for violating false advertising laws. The repercussions dig deeper than just monetary penalties, however. If the practice of false advertising continues to be prevalent on the Internet, consumers will be less likely to trust businesses to deliver what they claim, ruining any good reputation that existed before. Skepticism doesn’t sell.

A consequence worse than losing consumer trust, however, is that false advertising sets up a destructive business environment. It becomes less about innovating and creating a better product or service for consumers, and more about shouting and claiming to be the best in the world. This kind of business environment isn’t healthy for the economy and doesn’t provide anything for society other than more noise to sift through. Marketing is all about adding value, and false advertising through fake online reviews only takes away value.

RE: Dylan Stack’s “Pushing The Limits with UrtheCast”

November 14th, 2012 § 0 comments § permalink

This post is a response to Dylan’s post about the potential security concerns of UrtheCast.

UrtheCast, created by Sauder alumni Wade Larson and his brother, will be the first streaming HD video camera installed on the International Space Station (ISS); it is also a platform that allows users to playback the video. Larson has termed UrtheCast to be “like Google Earth, but better”. There is also a function that allows users to also see in realtime social media interactions from sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Dylan argues that this social media layer is an invasion of privacy, which I disagree with. The posts that UrtheCast shows are ones that social meda users have placed on a “public” setting. By having public settings, users already acknowledged that their posts can be seen by anyone with an internet connection. If one’s Twitter is private to followers or Facebook has higher security settings, that person’s posts will not show on the site in realtime.

I agree with Dylan that this social media layer will be off-putting to the general public. People with higher security settings will still feel unsafe about their information floating around the internet, and may dislike UrtheCast because of it. I sincerely hope they don’t, though, because UrtheCast is amazing and I can’t wait to see it take off.

eBay Crawls Back to China

November 13th, 2012 § 0 comments § permalink

This past weekend, I received a phone call from a cousin that lives in China. We ended up talking about her small business and online shopping. She revealed to me that eBay would be returning to China to sell designer goods. I guess eBay couldn’t resist the tempting Chinese market of 500+ million online users. A search on Google results in this article by the BBC, boasting a “40% […] increase of goods” purchased by the Chinese on eBay’s English site.

Despite the large potential, I believe there are problems that eBay faces in re-entering the Chinese market.

Five years ago, when eBay faced competition by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s Taobao.com, the company, which already had trouble gaining popularity in Asia, fled China – fast. The Chinese haven’t forgotten this massive failure.

Other e-commerce giants, like Amazon.com Inc., had a difficult time penetrating the Chinese market, even with designer goods and a well-known brand. eBay will need some serious product differentiation from other online retailers if it wants to stay in the game. It doesn’t help that the new site’s name is ebay.xiu.com, forcing eBay to share the spotlight.

If incumbent Chinese online retailers somehow manage to sell designer goods in the near future, eBay will lose majorly. The young, wealthy middle class people that shop online want designer goods, but they want them fast. Shipping will take at least 7 business days since the goods are sourced from the US. Most of my family members in China that shop online still prefer Chinese sites like Taobao.com.

Musings on Energy Aware

November 13th, 2012 § 0 comments § permalink

Sauder alumni and Energy Aware CEO Janice Cheam’s recent presentation to our class gave me a lot to ponder about.

During the final Q&A portion of the talk, classmate David Kelly asked whether Energy Aware’s products could be bought directly by the consumer. Cheam responded that the company’s products are not sold directly and it has only recently started one e-commerce site that caters to San Diego, California. Since Energy Aware’s products require the locations to have prior infrastructure of smart metering, it is easier for them to provide their products to a larger audience through partnerships with energy management services and distributors.

In addition, Cheam mentioned after class during our quick conversation that the PowerTab is not patented because it costs serious cash (and cashflow is hard to maintain in entrepreneurial businesses) and the software for the product is constantly evolving, rendering a patent useless. These two choices reinforces the strategic concept that companies must choose what they don’t provide in order to establish a sustainable competitive advantage over competitors.

Also, while I don’t think of myself as an entrepreneurial thinker, Cheam’s talk prompted a fuller comprehension on how fundamental innovative thinking is to any specialization or industry. PowerTab was developed through a collaboration of engineering and business students, specializing in different fields; however, all shared the same passion for an innovative product. Innovative thinking, especially the collaborative type, is a skill that can take one far in the workplace.

Greece and the EU

November 2nd, 2012 § 0 comments § permalink

This question was asked during class this week: should Greece exit the EU?

I say no. Greece shouldn’t exit simply because this action would worsen their current economical and financial problems. Greece’s debt does not simply disappear if it leaves the EU – and boiling tensions between Greeks and Germans show that is unlikely that countries like Germany and France will “absorb” Greece’s debt. In addition, if Greece exits, it will have to return to using its older currency, which most likely has lower value than the euro. So what should Greece do, given that it should stay in the EU?

The bailouts that the IMF and EU gave Greece have been put towards narrowly-passed austerity reforms, several of which are starting to see success. There are at least two areas where change has been too slow. The privatisation of state-owned enterprises, which hopes to attract foreign investment and replenish state funds, will be difficult to attain since few investors see Greece as a secure investment. The second area that needs major work is tax reform. Greece is infamous for tax evasion, among citizens and businesses alike. If Greece doesn’t restructure it’s tax systems, the inefficiencies will continue and Greece will continue to lose public revenue.