At the beginning of the year, our Marketing professor Rui told us that we are going to have a team project this semester. To be honest, I am not a big fan of team projects because there are always people that work and people that don’t. However, this project turned out to be one of the best projects I have ever been a part of.

My team is the best team! All of us have our strengths and weaknesses, so we managed to divide our responsibilities very efficiently. Still, it was not that great at the very beginning. Now, it is very funny to remember our first meeting. We were shouting our ideas without listening to each other because we were very excited about the project. Thankfully, for the second meeting we were more prepared, and worked out the most effective way to do it. Surprisingly, our group that consist of six girls decided right away that our subject has to be Toyota.

The most remarkable part of our project was the last one. At first, we were a little bit frightened by the idea of filming a video and then be able to edit it because none of us has done it before. Yet, we were very agitated. All of us had tons of fun during the whole process: writing a script, filming, and editing. Now, we are not just teammates, but friends.

By the way, from this moment, when I am buying a car, I will be considering only Toyota cars.

This is an answer to the external article

In the article, the author is expressing his doubts whether shampoo should be applied twice because it is better for the hair or because marketers told us so. A simple word “repeat” can double the sales.  I liked this article because it makes people think if they have to follow instructions without giving it a second thought and try to evaluate how relevant they are.

This article made me think as well. What are other similar marketing strategies that are aiming at increasing sales? First example that is coming to mind is advertisement of Tic-Tac, Life Saver, and different chewing gums. In their commercials, models never have just one piece. They are showing customers an example of what exactly they should do with their product. Strange as it may seem, a big part of company’s target market actually follow this example.

However, that are not all the products that are sold this way. A good example is toothpaste. In this case, people usually do not put that much toothpaste on a brush that it is advertised. It is quite obvious that the amount of it in different commercials is definitely exceeded. Still, it is possible that this trick is done not to make customers to consume more, but just with the purpose for an ad to look better.

People see how the product is used in the commercial, so without even thinking he or she is repeating everything in the same way. Do we really need two pieces of chewing gum in order to get rid of bad breath? If so, why the portion has not been increased yet?

This is a comment on Anna An’s blog post.

Earlier in September, just after new iPhones were released, Apple experienced shortage of an iPhone 5s Gold model. Scarcity principle, one of Cialdini’s principles of influence, did a really good job for Apple – people are still standing in queues hoping to buy a rare gold phone. In September, it was announced that it will be impossible to get it until October. Today, if a customer wants to buy either white, black, or gold phone, he/she has to wait 2-3 weeks.

Was that made on purpose or Apple has not expected a demand to be that high? Is it possible that Apple has manufacture difficulties because of a new color? There is no way for us to find the truth before Apple’s official statement. However, after a month and a half there are a lot of problems with new phones that discourages potential customers of buying them. Apple’s desire to release a new model each September sometimes can result in poor quality. This fact makes us think that Steve Jobs’s number 1 priority is no longer that important for the company.

The main problems that arose people’s discontent are reduced battery life and “blue screen of death” that is familiar to all Windows users. Apple acknowledged a battery problem that appeared due to a manufacturing issue. The company is ready to change each phone with this type of malfunction. Yet, there are also some software problems as well, and in that case it is impossible to blame anyone but Apple.

It seems that with Steve Jobs’s death Apple developers have hard times coming up with new ideas and preserving the quality of the product.