Sylvia Lee's Blog

Angel’s blog post about product placement caught my attention. It makes me think about the influences of the products present in music videos. Are they good influences?

I recently watched Katy Perry’s new music video, E.T.

The music is great, and Kary Perry’s outfit and makeup are impressive. Overall, I think the video is very well-made and beautiful.

However, when the sunglasses show up near the end of the video, I loss excitement toward the video and feel a little disappointed — the video can be more perfect without the appearance of the sunglasses.

According to the news, Katy Perry teamed up with Vougue Eyewear, and agreed to show its products in her music video. Although it wasn’t a strong product placement, like Britney Spears’ music video with her perfume line in Angel’s Blog, I still don’t like the idea of seeing any kind of product advertisement in music videos. I mean, music videos are already a kind of commercial which promotes singers’ new songs; why do they have to put in additional product commercials? Product placement in music videos can easily make viewers loss focus in music.

Although I believe there is a negative effect of product placement in music videos, brands that appear in popular music videos do get more attention and become well-known.

When you hear “Disney”, how many kinds of product can you associated with?

Disney movies, clothes, toys, food, resorts, cruise lines, make-up products, books, airlines,… just to name a few. With so many different products in the market, Disney is almost a part of everyone’s life. Without a doubt, Disney succeeded in its brilliant brand and line extension strategies.

Out of all the brand extensions, my favourite is Disney’s theme park. I was once again enchanted by Disney Land’s commercial after reading Andrea’s blog post.

Andrea talked about how Disney uses vivid colours, fun images, and cheerful music in its commercials to capture customers’ interests in Disney Land.

Although it seems that Disney’s commercials and products are mostly targeting the younger generation, Disney certainly does not give up on any opportunity to reach the grown ups.

This simple but memorable commercial is used to target the older consumers. It shows that couples’ sparkles can be created by Disney, because everyone is still a little kid inside.

Starbucks is a company of innovation. It not only has changed the way North Americans (or even the world) drink and buy coffee, the company itself is continuously changing.

Not long ago, Starbucks simplified its logo into a plain graph, eliminating its “Starbucks Coffee” sign. The new logo echoes the company’s change of direction – Starbucks is now More than just a coffee company.

Right after the logo change, Starbucks has recently lauched a new line of sweets called “Petites”, which includes cake pops, mini cupcakes, cream pies, brownines, and several other mini sweets.

I think the most eye-catching product out of all the new pastries Starbucks lauched is the cake pop. The cake pops come in three flavors, Rocky Road, Birthday Cake, and Tiramisu. They are all under 200 calories each.

Different from its previous pastries (such as banana breads, chocolate chunk coockies, and blueberry muffins), cake pops seem more high-class and delicate. Of course, the price is a little higher at around $2 CAD each.

Starbucks’ target market for this new mini-dessert line is probably female (no matter what age!) who has a sweet tooth but doesn’t want to consume a lot of calories (200 calories per cake pop is relatively low comparing to other Starbucks pastires. Each banana loaf contains 450 calories!).

Starbucks has also offered a promotion of free cake pops on its 40th anniversery to catch customer’s attention of its new products. 

Eventhough a lot of “innovators” had already tried cake pops and told people how bad it tasted, I don’t think I can resist buying a few for myself and friends just becuase the mini sweets look way too adorable.

My mom once told me that she gave up her career to be a stay-home mom so that she could provide more care to me and my brother.

I am sure there are a lot of moms in the similar position out there. Because of maternal love, they gave up infinite opportunities, the sense of career achievement, or even their dreams, to stay home and take care of their children.

However, in nowadays society, moms have lots of opportunities to develop her own career and new social networks at home. Instead of gossiping about neighbors or bitching about husbands and kids during daily afternoon-tea gathering with other moms, women can now spend their spare time on writing blogs, facebooking, youtubing, and tweeting.

Amy, @Amalah, a mom who has 56,000 plus followers, writes about her life and kids, and gives child-care advises, all in a humorous way.

Another mom named Amy, @SelfishMom, is ranked the “Funniest” out of the “Top 50 Twitter Moms”. She is a work-at-home mom, who writes articles for several women’s advisory websites. In her profile she wrote “I spend the rest of my time avoiding housework and not paying attention to my children raising independent, self-sufficient children. I have no interest in spending all day on the playground (playgrounds are for kids!), and I don’t believe that my children should be the center of my life, even though they’re the most important thing in it. (Yes, I realize that makes no sense, but it couldn’t be more true.) We’re all in this together, but I was here first.”

Have you tried a macaron yet?

The little confectionery called “macaron” has been the hottest topic for desert-loving girls for a number of years. However, not everyone has tried it yet, nor even heard of it.

Macaron is a traditional French dessert originated from Italy in around 791. Since it was first introduced to the French royal family in the 1500’s, macaron has been one of the most popular dessert in France.

Back in 2009, when I first saw the word “macaron” in a magazine, I couldn’t believe that each little piece of cookie-like dessert made of just 3 ingredients (egg white, almond powder, and sugar) could sell for $2.50 CAD.

Here I’m talking about the macarons selling at the dessert lovers’ pilgrimage site in France, Pierre Herme. Of course, for $2.50 you can only buy the most basic kind of macaron.

Pierre Herme’s signature rose and raspberry macaron is selling at more than $7.00 CAD.

Pierre Herme uses prestige pricing to attract customers who are willing to spend a premium on getting the best-quality macarons. It invests more money in higher quality ingredients, packaging, store layout, and well-trained salespersons.

In Paris, you can also get macarons from McDonald’s for a more affordable price at $1.30 CAD each, and that’s about half the price of a macaron selling in Pierre Herme.

Consumers are less likely to purchase luxury products, such as Pierre Herme’s macarons, on a regular basis. In order to retain its loyal customers, and increase its brand awareness, Pierre Herme created a “Macaron Day”, on which it offers free macarons to customers who shops at its store.

As a dessert lover, Pierre Herme will definitely be on the top of my list of attraction sites when I visit Paris.

In today’s lecture we learned about the functions of product packaging and how packaging adds value to the products. The purposes of product packaging include: products’ physical protection, information transmission, lower the security risk of transportation, containment, and marketing.

Here are a few product packagings that I found very creative and interesting, and they definitely affect my purchase decision.

Energy Drink with packaging that looks like a blood bag, how convincing!

These juice boxes should be placed at the fresh fruit section in grocery stores 😉

This yogurt’s packaging is not only eye-catching, but also convenient for consumers who do not have spoons at hand.

These tea bags just adds a little fun into our lives.

Oh boy, nice hair!

“Apple” Pie.

http://www.styleite.com/media/wal-mart-kids-makeup/

This article caught my attention when I was surfing the Internet this afternoon. It says Walmart is about to launch an “anti-aging” makeup line, targeting the “8 to 12 year-olds”. Although I have noticed that in recent years, beauty product companies are having a trend of targeting the younger marketing segments, “8 years-old” still seems a bit “too young”.

The makeup line, that is about to be launched by Walmart in February, is called “GeoGirl”. Even though Walmart claims that the products are made of eco-friendly and all-natural materials, and even contain “anti-aging” ingredients, it is a common fact that makeup products are bad for your skin. Especially, younger girls’ skin is more sensitive and delicate and can be damaged easily.

The most peculiar point is that, why do 8 year-olds need anti-aging products? Generally, applying makeup will only give you more wrinkles than if you do not.

However, if we put ethical issues aside, 8-to-12-year-old tweens are a very profitable demographic group to target. It  is estimated that the tweens have a 2 million dollars buying power. With Walmart’s low-price strategy, GeoGirl can be a big hit in the market.

By the age of 5, most kids start to notice the gender difference. Girls, especially, are curious about the adults world and look up to their moms as their role models. I believe it is in every girl’s genes to have the desire to make herself pretty. However, mothers should reeducate their daughters about self-esteem and teach them to love the way they look.

With technology improvement and the number of Internet users’ dramatic increase in the past decade, many company has started marketing their products or services to consumers through Internet. Lancome has demonstrated a successful example of on-line marketing.

In 2010, Lancome hired Michelle Phan, a popular makeup-artist “vlogger” who creates makeup tutorials and uploads them on youtube. Michelle Phan is the number 1 most subscribed female vlogger on youtube with subscribers over 1 million, and her videos have been viewed over 3 billion times.

Lancome saw a marketing opportunity in Michelle Phan’s youtube subscribers. It asked Michelle Phan to be its spokeperson, and use its makeup products in her tutorials.

Michelle Phan and Lancome

I believe Lancome chose Michelle for a few reasons:

1. Michelle Phan is popular on youtube. (In Lancome’s macroeconomic marketing environment, it decides to develop new marketing strategies using technology. By having Michelle Phan using its products in on-line tutorials, Lancome can reach world wide internet users and therefore improve its brand’s global popularity)

2. People believe in Michelle Phan’s expertise. (Subscribers are likely to purchase the products that Michelle uses in her tutorials becuase of their cognitive evaluations on Michelle’s expertise)

After Lancome signed Michelle Phan, its makeup products sales have significantly increased. No matter how much advertising Lancome has paid for over the past year, their name has been circulated around the globe faster and with more pizazz than any television commercial, by Michelle Phan’s tutorials.

One of Michelle Phan\’s most viewed videos

“Consumer spending behavior can be significantly influenced by the store atmosphere and the customer mood. Customers require a store layout that maximizes the number of products seen within the context of a customers’ need for the product. Customers who experience a form of personal control, whether in orienting themselves to the store section they need to go to or in finding the products they want, generally feel good about the store. Good feelings lead to more purchases, especially if products are presented within a display that shows the potential usefulness of the product for them.”
–International Journal of Research in Marketing (1997)

As we have leanred in class, situational factors, such as shopping situation and temporal state, can influence consumer purchase-decision process. Consumers are likely to buy more if the store has a pleasant atmosphere, such as providing good music, nice lighting, and comfortable scent.

Banana Republic, which sell clothes to mainly business wemon and men, provides a comfortable atmosphere with spacious layout, clear lighting, and trendy music. These give the shoppers a easy yet professional feel.

Hollister provides a cozy atmosphere with dark lighting, cozy furnitures, and loud music; which attract the younger crowd.

What do you think of this cherry-looking hair accessory?

When I first looked at it, I couldn’t imagine anyone would want to put this on her (his?) hair and walk on a busy street in daylight. Not only because of its bright color, but the whole idea of wearing such a big, dramatic hair accessory made me go “Huh?”

However, this product has become a big hit in Asian countries because of the company’s endorser, Lena Fujii.

Lena is a Japanese model, well-known in almost all South Asian countries including Japan, China, Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Her cute and innocent image made her the Asian girls’ most-want-to-be idol.

Whatever Lena wears in magazines will be the new trend. Whatever her makeup/hair looks like will be the new style of the season. By hiring such a popular and influential endorser, the company has sold countless hair accessories even with a price as high as 2,700yen ($27.00 CAD)/hair tie.

So I guess endorser does make a difference. I wouldn’t be surprised to see girls in Vancouver start wearing these fluffy hair accessories.