This is the reflective of our marketing video about TD bank. I was the TD-representative of the video and I had the most dialogs. Since this is my first time acting, I believe there is many things I can improve. For example, I was talking to fast during my dialog, and I had too much action to counter my nervous. In addition, I really learned the importance of teamwork, because even though I was the original Script writer, since English is my second language, my script was not very descriptive. However, Jason was able to come in and expand my original script to a much better one. Also, since Michael has always been the one organize things, I asked him to be the director, and he really fulfilled the role well! Edward on the other hand is very typical western guy, and therefore, he fitted perfectly as the US student, one of the main actor. Billy and Joshph is always there to have ideas and contributed to the team. This video will not be possible made if it was not the team effort. SO I would like to thank every team member.

As for the whole assignment, I believe the hardest part is to find the good positioning statement. I really think our position statement could be better next time. I think this can only be improved by practicing.

A successful brand require 6 essential component, including Brand Name; URLs; Logos and symbols; Characters; Slogans; and Jingles/Sounds. Out of the 6 component, I believe the Slogans is the most important component for a company to establish and market to the customers, because a good slogan can represent the culture of the company and is easy for the customers to memorize. For example, the sleeping country slogans “why buy a mattress anywhere else” has really sink into consumer’s mind and give them a significant comparative advantage over its competitors and I can not think of think of anywhere else to buy a mattress.

Once the brand name is established, the logos and symbols becomes more important, for example, anyone can recognize the logo of Coca-cola, but only the targeted consumers will be able to recognize the logo of Mountain Dew. This is because Mountain Dew is still not a well established brand as Coca-cola yet, therefore, the brand name of Mountain Dew and the logo and symbols of Mountain Dew does not have the same value as the logo and symbols of Coca-cola.

Without a doubt, the translation of brand-name into the world market is very important. The example of Coca-Cola first go into the Chinese market was called 蝌蚪啃蜡 (tadpole eating wax), the the market respond very slow to it because the literal meaning of the brand is not attractive. Coca-Cola then changed their name to 可口可乐(Happiness of the mouth) which attracted consumers to the product much easier.

Therefore, in order to have a successful brand, the company need not only have a good product, but also need to develop the brand name in order for the customers to remember your product. The most important component of branding is to create a easy to remember Slogan and a meaningful brand name. This will create a comparative advantage in the long run to out compete your competitors.

The original post is https://blogs.ubc.ca/eeaton/

In this post, Eaton talked about the player Andrew Wiggins is about to earn $180 Million dollar before he is even play any game outside of high school. I totally agree that this is a ridiculous high pay for such an young age player, but if we look at Andrew Wiggins’s profile, he is 6ft8in (2.03m), he was named 2013 Gatorade National Player of the Year, and Mr. Basketball USA, and he was ranked number one high school basketball player by SLAM Magaizine. This all make him seems like a player that has full of potentials, therefore, by endorsement him into Adidas, Adidas is purchasing an intangible asset for the next 20 years （Given Jordan retired at age of 40). Once Adidas has an ongoing relationship with Andrew, it would be easier to ask him for additional advertising than if Andrew got recruited by Nike. Therefore, it is very necessary to target those potential big stars early.

In addition, let’s look at the 180 Million.

With the 16% market share, times by half of the American Population of 300 Million

0.16 x 150M = 24M person. Times that by $100 per shoes is $2400 Million of revenue, which is greater than 180 Million paid. That is only one person buying one shoes from one country, and not counting the other products that got bumped up in price due to Andrew wearing Adidas, and the market share Adidas might steal from Nike.

Therefore, It has the with such Marketing Strategy, Adidas has the potential of making multimillion of dollars, and the 180 Million does not seems like such big amount of money any more.

I guess this can really justify why many teenagers are dreaming to be good enough to be able to play in the professional sports such as NBA.

Let’s watch a Youtube Video of Andrew to see if he is really that good!

Andrew Wiggins video

We have learned in class about the 7 principle of marketing strategy which are, Consistence, Commitment, Liking, Reciprocity, Authority, Scarcity, and Social Validation. All those principle does not promise a successful transaction will occur, but it will increase the chance of the sale to a certain degree. However, I want to talk about the “cons” of each of those principle that might reduce the sale.

Consistence, it means have a few people keep talking about the product is good, and it has a great value to the customer. However, as a potential buyer, I always believe that those ones who claim has used the product are really “Brought” by the company to just say the product is good, that they have never used it. Story like this happened a lot in China, that a famous star claim a product is so good, but it turns out to be a very bad product, and investigation showed that this star never used the product before, and was just claiming it because he/she got paid. How to decrease the anxiety of the customers due to this distrust should be a major concern for the company before using the Consistence Principle.

Commitment, it means have the customer pay a deposit first, so the customer will be unlikely to treat the payment as sunk cost and eventually buy the product. But making the customer pay the deposit first is the issue. If the deposit is refundable, then the commitment is less efficient, but if it is non-refundable, customer may become angry at the fact you want him to pay a deposit because he feels the pressure which may lose the customer as a result. So, when and how are you going to ask for the deposit should be a major concern for the company before using the Commitment Principle.

Liking, it means customers will more likely to buy from the company that has the same background. There is no issue of this fact, but however, if you are only targeting a particular background of customer, you may lose customer from other background. So this should be taken into consideration before using the Liking Principle.

Reciprocity, it means by giving a positive influence to the customer first, it is most likely the customer will feel he owns you something and buys your product in return. This is a good strategy to those customer have the moral obligation of returning the favor, but for those who like to take things for granted, they may think that “you should be doing this because you are expecting my money! I do not feel pressured” and all your favor will just turn into cost. Therefore, before using the Reciprocity Principle, a good understanding of the customer is critical to target the right customer.

Authority, it means customer will most likely to believe the word from an authority other than someone random. I believe it is very true and I do not have an argument against it.

Scarcity, it means by telling the customer it is a “limited time offer” or “we only sell 50 items”, the customer will feel the pressure and choose your product first. However, before you can use the Scarcity Principle, make sure there is not a lot of competition out there customer can easily substitute to. For example, what do you think your chance is if you go to a job interview after graduation and say “I have already got 5 other offers from other companies, you better hire me now”?

Social Validation, it means if the whole society is using something, it must be good. Product like Apple is a great example. However, if you are already at the Social Validation Stage, you better keep up the good product and keep up with the word of mouth from the population, otherwise, the Social Validation will eventually fade away. Ever since Steve Jobs passed away, Apple has been losing market share mainly because people’s expectation is too high, and they can not match it. This allow Samsung and other competitors to steal Apple’s market share and reduced the Social Validation of Apple. Company need to watch out for this when they trying to use the Social Validation Principle to sell their product.

Overall, those seven principles are very good base point to try promote your product, but as a company, you should always think deeper about each particular situation and target different customers using different ways. Only then, customer will be able to see the value in your product and willing to pay for it.

When you search on wikipedia, pricing ethics in marketing contains “Dumping”,  “Price fixing”, and “Price war” etc. The definition of Price War in wikipedia is “commercial competition characterized by the repeated cutting of prices below those of competitors”. I believe there are many Pricing wars in our society. Some examples are “Future shop” and “Best Buy” saying “we will match any listed price of other competitors”. On one side that it seems beneficial to the consumers that we can get a better price on the things we buy. But it is not good in the long run for the company. They do not have the incentive to compete on the four criteria of “Customer Excellence”, “Product Excellence”, “Operational Excellence”, and “Locational Excellence”. Other than the product is cheaper, there are no value in the product and company at all.

Take myself as example, I have never went back to buy computer from either Future Shop or Best Buy because I do not see the value in it other than it match any other price, and as soon as I learn how to build up my own PC, which is way better than theirs, of course I would ditch those companies. (Take another thought, that Future Shop and Best Buy are really making big profit on their extended warranties, which I would never get it again once I learned accounting).

On the other hand, a company such as Walmart, always advertise that they sell it cheap. But that is not Price War, it is that they have the comparative advantage of Operating Excellence. No other company can produce as cheap, of course Walmart can stand out of the competitions.

If there is one advice I might think can help Future Shop or Best Buy to add value to their customers. Maybe instead of trying to beat every single price, invest your resources into a better customer service. 1. Maybe stop charging so much for a fix of computer that only requires a reinstall. 2. Work faster with the customer request about the repair and order. If they starting to add those type of value into the company, people who are not so tech-savvy will be willing to pay for a bit more for your products for the service.

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