All this while, I have seen Marketing as a subject that revolves around creative advertisements and promotions. The course really did change my perception of the subject as I began to understand that Marketing is more than what I perceive. I believe I would be able to utilise the concepts that are learnt from Marketing in every facade of my educational career from now on. This experience has been a great revelation for me.
I will end with an inspiring TED video that talks about the enrichment that Marketing have on multiple aspects of one’s life. The talk was given by Rory Sutherland, a Marketing guru.
Samsung and Android claiming “victory” over Apple.
Does the image look familiar? Since I started the term off with a blog regarding Apple and Samsung, it would be fitting to end the last course blog regarding the two tech giants. According to an article written by Todd Wasserman from Mashable.com titled: “Samsung Is the Breakthrough Brand of 2012“, it discusses how Samsung has outgrown the majority of its competitors including Apple, for the past year. This is significant since Apple has also offered new products like the iPad Mini and iPhone 5 during this period. Such a feat can be attributed to the effective marketing strategies employed by Samsung.
For one, the use of the following advertisement highlight Samsung’s effective use of celebrity like figures (in this case world renowned athlete) to market its product.
Featured in the video is LeBron James, famous basketball player from the Miami Heats that recently won the NBA Championship. The video depicts how he experiences life through integrating the Samsung S II smartphone. By using such an advertisement, Samsung can relate itself North Americans better since basketball is a really big sport here and people would know of LeBron James. This would allow them to view Samsung products as being innovative and productive since it is greatly received by a superstar.
The 2012 London Olympics
Such a strategy is employed globally through out various countries that carry the brand. Samsung was also a major sponsor for the London 2012 Olympics, a global event that is viewed by billions across the globe. This allowed Samsung to extend its reach even further. By associating itself with the Olympics, Samsung was able to elevate its status, truly attracting consumers that are in the market. The advertisement below depicts a Samsung commercial from the olympics.
I believe the success that Samsung enjoys would continue on through the future as the company strive to innovate new products and carry out more marketing that are effective and attractive!
Since the class would be discussing about ethics relating to marketing, I would like to further discuss the unethical marketing practices that are undertaken by McDonalds and reflect on the blog post of Alberto Bettini, one of my peer in COMM 296. As highlighted in Alberto’s blog, the targeting of children by McDonalds is highly unethical.
The infographic below sums up the statistics that support the unethical actions of McDonalds and other Fast food giants, towards children in particular (In Canada).
Though the case, there are not enough rules and regulations in society that punishes such behaviours. I feel that more should be done to help decrease the likelihood of children being targeted by McDonalds. I think this ties in with the McLibel case that happened in 1997.
The trial targeted the unethical behaviours of McDonalds and resulted in multiple Anti-McDonalds campaign starting across the world. McCruelty (Viewer Discretion is Advised due to gory scenes) is one campaign that emphasises on the unethical actions of McDonalds. This particular campaign highlighted the supply of McDonald’s food and how McDonald’s lack of action has resulted in cruel deaths of animals. This adds on to Alberto’s blog that talks about the unethical targeting of McDonald’s niche group, children.
This also touches on the Public Relations (PR) of McDonalds. With such negative PR, McDonalds is still able to remain highly profitable. This leaves us to wonder how McDonalds is able to position itself in the minds of young consumers and affect their buying behaviour over an extended period of time.
The falsification of nutrition information by McDonalds is also another form of unethical practice by McDonalds.
(REFRESH IF VIDEO DOES NOT APPEAR!)
The above is a excerpt from the movie Supersize me. The extreme use of preservatives in fries of McDonalds itself is highly unethical. I believe the exploitation of consumers through the availability of limited information should be condoned by government agencies. Additional attention should be paid on such issues since the health of large groups of people depend on it.
I chanced upon this interesting blog that highlighted a very intriguing technology that was utilised in South Korea currently. The blog post that talks about e-commerce discussed how Tesco initiated its online store, the Homeplus brand in korea. The brand successful implemented a subway virtual store as depicted below.
I think the use of QR-codes for this form of shopping experience is really interesting and appeal to the younger generations nowadays since they tend to rely heavily on tech savvy devices like smartphones. The use of such a shopping experience at subway stations makes it possible for people to save time for other activities that they deem more important than grocery shopping.
Homeplus subway virtual store explanation. Credits: http://adsoftheworld.com/media/outdoor/homeplus_subway_virtual_store?size=_original
Through concepts learnt in marketing class, I believe the implementation of such a strategy for grocery stores in Vancouver could benefit both consumers and companies. With technological advances in the world today, the use of QR-Codes are readily available to both consumers and companies. Both should take advantage of such a situation in the marco-environment and develop strategies that target it. I believe this also ties in nicely with segmentation bases and variables taught in class. As people grow to become extremely busy and time conscious, the use of such a subway grocery store could reap extensive benefits for this segment of people. In addition, as people become more family-oriented in their lifestyles, time saved on grocery shopping could increase the time they have to spend on their family. With the success enjoyed by such stores in South Korea, I believe it is highly attractive for grocery stores to implement such a strategy.
With the launch of the iPad Mini on November 2nd, the e-reader market added another intense competitor. With the Nexus 7, Amazon Kindle Fire HD and now the iPad Mini all in the mix, it would become really competitive as all vive to become ‘king’ of the e-reader market. The oligopolistic nature of the e-reader market makes differentiation extremely important. Though the iPad Mini looks extremely tempting, I believe it would not live up to all the hype surrounding it. I believe Apple is targeting a wrong market through the release of the iPad Mini. The iPad has had tremendous success since its launch in 2010 with sales exceeding 84 million.
Apple should instead focus on further differentiating its existing iPad rather than diversifying into another already highly competitive market. This could potentially increase potential risks that are faced by Apple. Since there are already existing e-readers that are well established in the market, Apple is essentially playing catch up with its iPad Mini. This was evident as pre-orders for the iPad Mini were well below expectations of analysts. From the article, “Granted, analysts had expected that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPad Mini sales would be lower on opening day.” The stock prices of Apple also reflect the bullish outlook being faced by the iPad Mini.
Apple Stock Price Plummets over a 5 day period after bad outlook for the iPad Mini.
Thus I believe the iPad Mini would not be the e-reader killer that could potentially ‘kill’ off all other e-readers that are in the market. Instead, I lean more towards the fact that the iPad Mini would be overpowered by Nexus 7 and the Amazon Kindle Fire HD that are lower priced and offer similar e-reading experience. Now, the world look upon the performance of Apple as the holiday seasons arrive.
Apple Christmas Advertisement
Ending on a lighter note, I chanced upon this cool rap video regarding Steve Jobs.
With the blog action day being held today, I would like to post something related to the theme, “The Power of We”. The above video is a half-time show at a college football game in the United States. It involves members of the marching and athletic band of the Ohio State University. The video epitomises the power of teamwork and how a collective group of people working together to achieve a common goal can create wonderful results. Teamwork is becoming an integral part of today’s society. From professional sports franchises to corporate teams, certain elements of teamwork are involved. In the words of Michael Jordan, one of the most decorated basketball player of our generation:
Talent Wins Games but Teamwork and Intelligence Wins Championships – Michael Jordan (Credits: http://quotesandsayingsblog.com/wp-content/uploads/Talent-wins-games-but-teamwork-and-intelligence-wins-championships.jpg)
Adding on, Brittany Dowell, director of publication relations at Digital Talents Agents said on a article regarding the success of a great leader, “Through my professional experience, I’ve come to discover the seemingly contradictory truth that a great leader is defined by his or her teamwork skills. As John C. Maxwell says, ‘A boss says Go and a leader says Let’s Go.‘ Leadership is demonstrated through a strong dedication to a team and promoting collaboration, whether you work in a startup or corporate environment.” This again highlights the power of collaborative efforts and how ‘We’ can become a force to be reckoned with.
Throughout my educational career, I have been through myriad team projects. I feel these projects are of paramount importance to the development of my team-working skills. I believe the ability to work well in groups from previous experiences would help me significantly when I enter the workforce in the near future. For the time being, I hope I would be able to contribute positively to the group work for this course.
So apparently, Samsung is beginning its evil master plan of executing revenge on Apple over the patent lawsuits that both are embroiled in. The commercial above was released by Samsung Mobile US 2 days before the release of iPhone 5. It is evident that Samsung is attempting to cool down all the hype that is surrounding Apple’s ‘Next Big Thing’. In addition to the commercial above, Samsung also came up with an advertisement that aims to take shots at Apple’s iPhone 5.
“Samsung’s attempt in trying to take target Apple by comparing capabilities between its S3 with Apple’s iPhone 5. It is clear that Samsung portrays the S3 to be far superior than the iPhone 5.”
I believe several concepts introduced in class could be used to discuss such actions by Samsung Mobile US. For one, Samsung Mobile US is trying to deal with the direct competition that it faces from Apple. With both giants operating within the Smartphone industry and being the top Smartphone producers around the globe, the competition is evidently stiff and intense. Both Apple and Samsung have great desire to emerge as kings of the Smartphone industry.
‘The Battle of Gods’
Although such a scheme by Samsung could work in the short run, I strongly doubt its ability to be sustainable in the long run. This is because Apple has gone beyond a company that merely offers technologically advanced products. Apple is now a global brand that deliver customer value through the various excellency it possesses.
Apple provides:
Customer Excellence – The extensive support that Apple provide for its customers help retain loyal customers that are potentially advocates of the company.
Operational Excellence – Great training provided for employees that result in superior communications with customers.
Product Excellence – Innovative products that never cease to amaze people
Locational Excellence – The wide network of Apple store around the world
I am an international student currently starting my second year at the Sauder School of Business. I come from Malaysia, and have been in Canada for around 3 years. There are myriad number of things that I enjoy doing over my free time. For one, I enjoy watching various sports and is an avid fan of both:
Manchester United (Credits:http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-q_mNB8x9fYc/UEd47fIczBI/AAAAAAAAJO0/NfUm7Of1N1w/s1600/MU83.jpg)
AND
Los Angeles Lakers (Credits: https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8168/7755900806_12a615b7ec_c.jpg)
I also enjoy watching various dramas including:
White Collar (Credits:http://www.usanetwork.com/series/ whitecollar/downloads/wallpaper/images/wc_s1_wall02_1920x1200.jpg)Suits (Credits: http://ourbigtv.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/SuitsTvPoster.jpg)Leverage (Credits: http://www.wired.com/geekdad/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/leverage_wallpaper_cast_01_1024x768.jpg)
These are TV shows that I find really interesting and fun to watch.
Interests aside, although I am considering to major in Finance in 3rd year, I really want to take this opportunity to know more about what Marketing is really about. I hope through this course, I would be able to gain more insights into the world of Marketing and thus diversify the options available in 3rd year.
