Category: Marketing

After watching the Super Bowl Volkswagen’s Darth Vader commercial, it led me to think about how corporations spend millions of dollars on advertisement during the super bowl for a 30 second ad. In my friend’s blog, Ting Ting mentioned the Best Buy’s advertisement using Bieber and Osbourne – an unlikely duo. It created a buzz and an anticipated commercial just because they are an unlikely pairing. They spend millions and millions of dollars to advertise during the Super Bowl because of the millions of viewers. To answer the question “if Super Bowl ads are worth it?” – I look back at my previous posts about viral campaigns using social media. Youtube has billions of viewers per day. Businesses spend almost nothing on viral campaigns compared to Super Bowl ads.

But one thing is certain; it is definitely not easy to create a viral campaign. And spending millions of dollars almost guarantees a viral campaign. In the age of social media, corporations are smart enough to integrate both the Super Bowl ads with social media to ensure billions of viewers. For example, the Volkswagen’s Darth Vader commercial has over 15 millions views on Youtube. For effective integrations such as the Darth Vader commercial, I think it’s worth it to spend millions of dollars.

Here is another 2011 Super Bowl commercial that has gone viral on youtube:

I really enjoyed the music in the advertisement. Grand music always gives me the chills.

QR codes have been becoming more and more popular through these last couple of years. It has become a creative integrated marketing campaign with the use of technology. My friend, Jason, wrote a post on QR codes. He talked about an effective way of marketing using QR codes by putting the codes at “Kodak Picture Moments”. I agree that QR code is a very creative marketing tactic and certainly grab consumers’ attention for those who do have smartphones.

Here is another example of using QR codes for marketing. PUMA launched a new designer menswear line at the London Selfridges store. To promote this launch, PUMA had 50 QR codes decorated around the city taking people to different web content. The different web content displays a story behind one of the designer’s range. Also, they placed 1500 QR codes on cubes around the city taking people to the PUMA’s youtube page. This is a great example of a successful marketing campaign using QR codes.

However, I cannot help but to think if this is just a fad. More and more businesses are using QR codes because they are inexpensive and effective. When I see these codes nowadays, I don’t bother using my phone to scan the code because I don’t want spam and I don’t have time for it either. And I think a lot of people feel the same way. I think creative and attention-grabbing advertisement would have to supplement the QR code in order to get consumers’ attention. However, this might just be a phase because we’re intrigued by this technological trend.

Artwork is often hard to sell, especially the more high-end art. However, discoveredartists provide a service that combines artists with interior designers and art buyers. The website provides a direct marketing system where it reaches the targeted market of enthusiastic art or home decor buyers. Artwork from all over the globe is picked by the people of the website who think that the artwork is suitable for the art buyers and the interior designers. The website holds a gallery of art and interior designs. The interior designers can pick and buy the art that goes with their designs and art buyers can also mix match the interior designs with the artwork.

I think this is a great marketing promotional strategy because it is a gallery that gathers both interior designs and artwork, which I think is a great combination. Home decors who want beautiful artwork that matches with the design would be motivated to use this website because it is easy to use and easy to match. It is also a great marketing tool for both interior designers and independent artists.

Lately, I have been shown a lot of the Coca-cola commercials. To my surprise, I have seen most of those videos/commercials before. Today, in marketing class, we were shown a Coca-Cola futuristic commercial. Last night, I attended an EBiz Annual Event, where they were talking about the importance of social media. Ann (a marketing professor at UBC) talked about a viral video about Coca-Cola happiness machine. She had worked there before and was exposed to how the whole process was developed. It started with a small company called Definition 6. It took them 10 years to finally reach Coca Cola’s marketing team and presented them with the storyboard of the happiness machine. Coca Cola decided to take a chance with them and together, they created the video. In order to make it viral, Coca Cola had all of their employees (26000 employees) to post the link on their facebook, twitter, and any other social media channels. It spread like a wildfire and achieving over a million views over the first week. This has shown me that it takes a lot of effort to create viral campaigns or any other good advertisement for that matter. After the viral video, they went ahead and created a commercial from the video. It was amazing hearing what it took to create a viral campaign. Also, the video reinforced Coca Cola’s brand and what Coca Cola wanted to represent – happiness.

I’m a big fan of reading. I enjoy reading novels – usually romance, crime, or any books that are recommended by others. However, when I do not have a particular book to buy, I search for books that I am interested in. And I do that by judging the cover of the book. I know there’s a saying that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but there are way too many books. The beautiful and unique covers will usually catch my eye, which pushes me to pick up the book and read the back for a brief synopsis. This is how it is with other products. The packaging is so important – and makes a difference in the motivation of the buyer. A unique packaging is what attracts the first time buyers of your product. High quality products are what turn the first time buyers into loyal customers – but the packaging is the key to opening that door. Sometimes, the packaging would be more expensive than the product itself.

Here is some of the unique packaging that I found (You can find more on yeeeeee.com):

I would totally buy those products just for the creative packaging.

Today, I went to get a haircut, since I was long overdue for one. It has been at least half a year; I stalled because I really like my curls. My mom and I were fifteen minutes early, so we decided to read their magazines (which were all the latest Japanese and English fashion magazines that emphasized hairstyles). That adds to the customers’ mood. But what get me thinking about marketing are the products that the salons showcase while customers get their haircuts. When you enter a salon, the first thing you notice is the aroma of their products. Then, they use those products while washing your hair and extra treatment afterwards. In my case today, they used all Aveda products. So, you may be wondering how I know this. My hair smelled really good and the styling of my hair was smooth and shiny, so I bought some of their Aveda products that were sold in the salon. Isn’t cross-selling a really good marketing strategy?

The amusing part was that the tea they served was also an Aveda product called “comforting tea”. My mom really liked the tea and she even asked if she could buy it from the salon. I think it’s really smart when services cross sells with products. For example, beauticians selling moisturizers while giving their customers a facial or selling nail polish while giving a manicure. The service is an excellent opportunity to provide trialability of the products associated with the service.

When it comes to innovation and new products, many people look up and admire the products that Apple has constantly invented: new versions of iphone, ipod, itouch, ipad… and so on.

On a side note: Notice how their products all start with an “i”? Nice effective branding, don’t you think?

The amazing thing is all their new innovative products quickly become a trend and many other corporations then try to copy their products. Like their ipad, Research in Motion (maker of blackberry) is developing and launching the playbook – similar in many ways and provide similar functions. My question is: How does Apple do it? How is Apple able to keep developing and launching innovative products?

To touch upon this long, long answer, I thought about the BCG growth-share matrix. The first thought in my head was that their products go through this cycle. Apple’s Apple II Computer became a cash cow, which generated high profit margin at that time. The excess profit allowed them to develop the Lisa and the Mac – which were in the category of question marks.  Some products become successful and some do not – Mac moved up to be a star and eventually to a cash cow. And now in present time, their profits from cash cows such as ipod and iphone drive their development of new ideas and innovations such as the ipad. The ipad quickly rose to the stars. It is this process that makes new innovations possible.

Image taken from daveferguson.org

I am a person who absolutely loves food, but I only enjoy fine dining once in a while. And what I mean by once in a while, I mean about once per month or so. However, my fine dining increased to 3 times this month alone. Why, you might ask? Dine Out Vancouver! Dine Out Vancouver is a huge marketing strategy where you can eat with a pre-set 3-course menu at either $18, $28, or $38 at fancy restaurants. This promotion run by Tourism Vancouver lasts for two weeks every year in late January to early February and involves 215 restaurants. The aim is for people to try out different restaurants.

In these past two weeks, I went to Nu, Horizons (both $28 menus), and Goldfish Pacific Kitchen ($38 menu). However, it is not just limited to those set prices; you can increase the price by $10+ just by adding a drink or changing the appetizers to better ones. When I was first exposed to Dine Out Vancouver two years ago, I thought it was a really good deal in terms of price and quality – a deal that I should not miss out. It was the talk of the town; my friends were all discussing the different places they tried and the places they hope to try. Different web sites and blogs were suggesting recommendations based on their past experiences. It   was indeed a hype to follow – and I was of no exception.

Yet, I realize I spend so much more that month than any other months on dining. Is it still a good deal if I over spend on fine dining just because I am too caught up with the hype? I think they are very successful in promoting Dine Out Vancouver. It has been a sensation especially with the timing (after New Year). Furthermore, the restaurants are smart to promote their valentine menus during Dine Out. Overall, I am very satisfied with this promotion and I guess I became their loyal customer.

Videos provided by Tourism Vancouver Dine Out:

Looks delicious and mouth-watering, huh?

For all of you out there who do not know me too well or at all, I have a confession. I am a huge, HUGE TV addict; some of my friends gave me the nickname “TV guide”. But that’s beside the point, because this blog is about marketing. Today, I watched one of my absolute favourite TV shows, Grey’s Anatomy. However, what surprised me today about the episode were not the usual heart-warming moments or the complicated romances or the shocking surgeries; what surprised me was the marketing of twitter.

During the show today, Dr. Bailey was tweeting live about her surgeries in the operating room. She wanted to bring the hospital into the new media era. At first, Chief Webber doesn’t take the tweeting well, but he promised to look into it. Near the end of the show, Chief Webber learned that tweeting actually helps other residents to learn from the surgeries at Seattle Grace. He was caught up with the tweeting himself, especially after he reconnected with a resident that he taught in the past through twitter.

Twitter has grown to be a strong presence online. With the help of TV shows, like Grey’s Anatomy, Twitter is able to target many different types of people- from business professionals to bored teenagers to marketers. The episode markets to people that they can use twitter for learning, not just random comments. It also shows that networking is a part of the new trend and the new era where technology advances are integral to our daily lives, and twitter is the way to go. No wonder twitter is so successful.

Images taken from tvfanatic and androinica.

I was reading crazy stories about companies and their competition and I came across Kawasaki’s Blog “How to Change the World: Six More Crazy Stories.”

http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/04/six_more_crazy_.html#axzz1CGv5DQ32

I found #2 to be quite interesting and, at the same time, funny.  He was talking about the 1986 British Airways’ promotion and how Virgin Atlantic Airways stole their thunder. On June 10^th 1986, British Airways gave away 5200 seats. With this huge promotion, Virgin Atlantic, feeling the pressure, responded with a witty advertisement saying “It has always been Virgin’s policy to encourage you to fly to London for as little as possible. So on June 10, we encourage you to fly British Airways.” This advertisement campaign resulted in more media coverage than the British Airway’s promotion and cost Virgin a lot less dough.

I thought the advertisement was brilliant and, I had to admit, a bit underhanded. This mischievous advertisement makes me wonder if there is a certain code of ethics for marketing (written or unwritten) that companies should abide by. This ad brings me to research about Virgin Atlantic Airways advertisements, and they have a different marketing approach for each country. It’s a smart tactic on their part because their advertisements show that they did research on the culture of the country. Here are some of their advertisements from their website:

Japan:

Caribbean: