Wendy‘s Blog

This marketing course has changed my previous impressions about marketing and opened up a brand new world to me. Before, I believe marketing is only about branding and various ways of promoting a product/service. However, throughout the course and the completion of the marketing plan assignment, I found that there are many deeper concepts in marketing that can be easily apply to the real world.

The marketing plan assignment was a great way to implement class material to real life examples. I found out that thorough researching will build a strong foundation for further analysis. Therefore, our team spent the most effort for the first assignment and tried to cover all areas about the company. It was crucial to work in teams and divide up the work. Also, it is important to know each other’s research parts; thus, we’ve draft all three assignments on Googledoc to share among the group.

Some skills that I’ve enhanced would be communication skills and data analytical & management skills. I had to read through all the data and put it together in an effective way to present them to my teammates and other audiences. Through various meetings and discussions, my team exchanged ideas and each contributed our part to the assignment using effective communication skills. If I can try something different, I would try to arrange more meetings to engage the group together. As well, I would divide up the workload better so everyone can contribute to the assignment.

Overall, the marketing plan assignment was a fun learning experience. The video project was also interesting, and allowed us to develop new skills. I believe understanding marketing will be helpful in all aspects of business and Tamar has taught the material in an engaging way. Thanks Tamar! 🙂

All the advertisements we see today has been “retouched” by using Photoshop or some other tools, which is an open “secret” in all industries. But how will this phenomenon affect consumers? Is it ethical to present an “unrealistic” image to consumers?

An article from Globe and Mail, written by Susan Krashinsky, tried to find out where the demand from “retouching” came from. It seems that this phenomenon just occurred naturally and the public has expected this to happen. Dan Strasser, an art director claimed, “…even if you’re just taking a photo of a natural setting. You’re going to tweak the colour balance.” However, researchers also found that skewed beauty images cause female consumers to experience a negative effect on their body image and possibly promote eating disorders. Furthermore, parents should be alert and tell their children that what they see in advertisements is not always real.

An example from Dove’s famous video: “Evolution”

I believe that the use of Photoshop is acceptable, but not to the extent such that the product’s image has been tweaked entirely. It is unethical to advertise unrealistic images of the product to attract consumers. This will ultimately affect the company brand once consumers find out that the actual product looks dramatically different from what they have seen in the ads. Moreover, consumers’ perceptions nowadays are placing more significance towards “natural beauty”. Thus, it is crucial that companies think before they act and be more responsible for what/how they advertise.

After reading a post from Melody Han’s blog, I would like to elaborate on it. The original blog post, written by Jeff Beer, looked at the difference between a consumer and a shopper based on several research results. Melody emphasized on how marketing research can help marketers advertise their products. I would like to go deeper and discuss how these research ties in with the importance of branding.

One of the exercises conducted requires the shopper to look at a shelf for three seconds and tell the researcher what they saw. As expressed in the original article, “…for many consumers, especially in places like the grocery store, [three seconds] is the amount of time a brand has to get your attention.” That means, when making quick decisions, one of the most important criteria that affects consumer choice is branding.

It is especially important that the brand has a positive image in the consumers’ minds that attracts loyal consumers. Because consumers often ignore marketing messages, this made it difficult for marketers to grab consumer’s attention; therefore, marketers should focus more on getting consumers familiar with the company brand. Once they established a loyal customer base, there will be a greater chance that the consumer will choose their product within the three seconds. After the three seconds, then it is when consumers will actually read their marketing messages. Moreover, a strong brand protects the product from competition. With more loyal customers, the company will not be easily threatened by its competitors and can reduce marketing costs.

Nowadays, marketing have to advertise by focusing on what value their products/services can bring to consumers, not just the products/services itself. Branding is one key thing to add value.

An interesting blog post, “Playing Chicken with your Customers” by Shelley McQuade, described two scenarios that reflected the importance of understanding consumer behaviours.

In the first scenario, two customers have an item in hand ready to purchase and trying to find an additional item. After wandering through many aisles, they still could not find the item or any sales person. Thus, they gave up in the end and decided to order the item online instead.  In the second scenario, a customer is shopping online but could not find the “submit payment” button on the website after she made her purchasing decisions.

Both scenarios showed that companies did not make purchasing easier (or easy enough) for consumers. Consumer behaviours can be affected by various factors, including: psychological, social, situation, and the marketing mixes (4 P’s). The first scenario showed the importance of “place” for a product. If the product is not distributed in somewhere convenient for the consumers, they are not likely to buy it. Moreover, they will have a negative impression on the store, and probably spread the words among their friends, which are referred to as negative word of mouth.

The second scenario suggested that companies should make their websites more user – friendly. Depending on their target group, they may face various generations of customers. Older generations such as the Babyboomers, Generation X’s are not as technologically savvy as Generation Y. Therefore, companies should make websites simple and straight forward to make purchasing experience better for consumers.

This article demonstrated the importance of understanding consumer behaviours, which is crucial for companies in order to maintain a sustainable competitive advantage and succeed.

This morning, an article called “The best ads of 2012 (picked by those in the know)” caught my eyes. After I watched all 8 of the presented videos, I would like to share one of them, which I found to be very creative and interesting, and discuss how this ad affects my attitudes in 3 different levels: cognitive, affective, and behavioural.

“Three Little Pigs” – Advertiser: The Guardian Newspaper

Using the famous fairy tale “The Three Little Pigs” as an attention grabber, The Guardian successfully “illustrate a lush vision of multimedia ‘open journalism’”.  Starting from the wolf’s murder, the story creatively linked to issues such as homeowner’s rights, insurance fraud and mortgages, demonstrating the power of media and technology.

Cognitive aspects of this ad include “the Big Bad Wolf being boiled alive”, property rights, and whether or not the wolf had actually blown down the pig’s houses. Interestingly, the ad twisted the original perspectives of the story and changed what I have originally believed in. Before, I have never question whether blowing down the pig’s houses was realistic or not.

The music and graphics presented are very affective as it creates tension. As well, since “The Three Little Pigs” are well-known, I have an emotional link to the story.

In addition, showing how people react to the news of “Big Bad Wolf Boiled Alive” is an example of the behavioural aspects. On the media, it is very realistic that people will continue to express their opinions and link to other issues. Moreover, how the story links to insurance fraud and mortgage problems also portrays the real world.

Overall, I would consider this ad as one of the most memorable ones I have ever seen.

An interesting article from Marketing Week addressed several ethical issues in the marketing industry in 2012. These include: sexism in marketing, gender marketing, tax avoidance, badly behaved celebrity ambassadors and social gambling.

Companies such as Supermarket Asda, Morrisons and Barclaycard were surprisingly accused of sexism in their campaigns. Supermarket Asda’s advertisement of focusing on mother’s roles during Christmas has “prompted more than 180 complaints for being ‘sexist’ on Christmas”.  This example has shown the significance of “equality” during marketing campaigns. Since marketing builds the image of the company in public, the choice of marketing strategy becomes essentially critical. Therefore, companies should avoid targeting on particular customers only.

Similarly, gender-specific marketing has caused some concerns. In particular, toy retailers often use gender-specific marketing to sell their products. As well, a 13 year old girl in the US, McKenna Pope, expressed, “I feel that this sends a clear message: women cook, men work.” I believe that toys should not be specialized into different “gender”. Children should choose the products that they like, instead of being “suggested” to what they should play with.

Another issue that caught my eyes was Facebook being involved in social gambling. Facebook has decided to offer “Las Vegas-style slot machines and other games for bets up to £500 using a credit or debit card.”  Although Facebook says it will not promote gambling to those under 18, the impact of its action is still indispensable. As children and teenagers spend more and more time on Facebook, these online gambling games will become a threat to develop gambling problems for them in the future.

Marketing ethics is not only crucial in developing company brands; it also greatly affects our society. Therefore, companies must choose appropriate and ethic marketing strategies in order to become successful in the long run.

The Brazilian government blamed Chevron for the Frade Spill on November 8^th, and suspended Chevron’s drilling rights on November 23^rd until Chevron apologized and clarified the cause for the incident.

In additional to apologies, Chevron has also been fined $28 million by Brazil’s environmental agency. Chevron took full charge to provide solutions for the spill. “We controlled the source in four days. We worked with transparency and cooperation with the authorities of Brazil,” George Buck, Chevron’s CEO in Brazil, said. He also mentioned that the company “acted as rapidly and safely as possible” and “used all resources” to contain and stop the flow of oil from the drilling well.

Although the Frade Spill was relatively small, it still had great impact globally. Moreover, it will lead to an increase in opposition to offshore drilling worldwide, which will become obstacles to further drilling  for the company. It is crucial for a company to understand corporate social responsibilities and take actions to limit negative impact on the environment. In this case, Chevron should find a better way to minimize the potential for a spill to happen in the future. The company should also take into the account the costs that the society will suffer as a whole before taking actions to gain profits.

(credit to photograph:http://www.upstreamonline.com/live/article290461.ece)

Reference to original artical

After reading from Chloe Kim’s blog about mass customization, it gives me many insights on this new strategy of business.

Referring to the original blog, there are two main points about customization:

• Multiple market within
• Reduce cost with flexibility

The first point indicated a new way to view and understand customer behavior – as multiple markets. This simply stated that one customer will bring other customers into the market if his/her wants were fulfilled. The second point is the key for a company to maximize their profit by minimizing their cost. By mass customization, customer need could be better addressed while lowering the cost by producing less.

This new strategy is very useful because of it allows a company to target more directly to customer needs. According to Porter’s Generic Strategies Model, a differentiation focus strategy would have a higher cost. However, mass customization actually lowers the cost because it eliminated the risk of producing products with a low demand. Dell is the best example that demonstrated the effectiveness of this strategy.

Before starting her entrepreneurship, Vera Wang was a senior editor for Vogue for sixteen years and worked for Ralph Lauren for two years. In 1990, she opened her own design salon and started her own label in 1994.  Her trademark bridal gowns were worn by many well-known public figures and celebrities. Vera Wang later expanded her brand name through jewelry, housewares, fragrance and home fashion. She was awarded with the Leadership in the Arts Award by the Harvard-Radcliffe Asian American Association in 2010.

“If your heart is attached to it, then your mind will be attached to it. When you have a passion for something then you can not only be better at it, but you work harder at it too.” – Vera Wang. Vera’s determination and hard work lead to her success nowadays. Vera also realized that she has to create something different to stand out and build her brand; her rich experiences in the fashion area allow her to make profit speedily.

Learning is the top secret to Vera’s innovative, entrepreneurial success: “Don’t be afraid to take time to learn. It’s good to work for other people. I worked for others for 20 years. They paid me to learn” – Vera Wang.

Profile on Vera Wang

Other references:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vera_Wang

http://www.thelittlee.com/html/famous_entrepreneurs.html

Just as we discussed last week during class, businesses are now focusing more on “creating a social dimension to their value proposition” and their social responsibilities. Therefore, more and more eco-products start to dominate the market.

The Nissan LEAF is a zero-emission, all-electric vehicle newly developed by Nissan. According to Kevin Mio’s article, his two-day test on the LEAF was extremely positive – “There really is no difference monitoring around town in a LEAF compared to a traditional gasoline-powered vehicle. Moreover, the range of LEAF can vary 210 km to 110 km according to driving conditions and habits. This will be enough for most Canadian consumers since the average Canadian commute is calculated to be 25 km.

“Nissan wants to be part of the solution toward a sustainable society – for the sake of the planet and as a significant competitive advantage and a strategic differentiators in the global manufacturing sector,” said Nissan President Carlos Ghosn. Nissan is taking a bold and positive step towards Corporate Social Responsibility. Other companies should also follow and take on their own roles to create a better future.

Reference to original article

Nissan Website