Zak's Blog

Continuously browsing through Ubc’s finest blogs, I have chosen another post that I would like to comment on that I had found interesting and capturing as well. Looking at Karina’s post on the advertisement of Maynard’s candies have caught my eye.

https://blogs.ubc.ca/karinapangilinan/2010/10/07/we-love-candy-yes-we-do/

The ad of the Maynard’s candies is quite appealing and very vibrant and eye catching. The lasting image stays with you and is quite creative. This ad took a different approach to marketing candy as it made them into criminals. Other companies have not done this, and is a good reminder to keep the company and products in the customers retrieval set. I myself use to love these candies, but after new products and innovative new choices I had forgotten about these old choices, but they were still ones I use to love.

Continuing with Maynard’s I had found an intriguing blog on Maynard’s at http://candyaddict.com/blog/2008/09/16/candy-review-maynards-juicy-squirts-sour. Here they talk about how Maynards’ Most Wanted can be innovative and new as well and incorporate the old and turn it into the new. Maynard’s want to stay competitive with the rising candy market, but also want to keep their already high selling products continuing with a slight twist to them.

After seeing these clever ads I went and got myself my old favorite candies in these ads and having them never felt sweeter!

While browsing through fellow classmates blogs I had encountered quite an interesting one about a new Lamborghini bike for 7,500$:

https://blogs.ubc.ca/yousufali/2010/10/14/7500-lamborghini/

In this blog, it talks about how Lamborghini uses a brand extension line tactic to branch out of cars to now start on bikes. However with this new product they still keep the price relatively high compared to other competitors to hold on to their perceived value.  The launch of the new bike is creating quite the stir for the car fanatics and is a great way to remind its customers that they are still here, and that they are not afraid to try new things. The Lamborghini bike could be bought for riding pleasures in style but also as  a collectible or to show brand loyalty in the means of traveling.  As Yousuf suggested a Lamborghini stroller, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Lamborghini come out with shoes and maybe co brand with a shoes company as Ferrari did with Puma.

Recently, I read an article about an upcoming trend that not that many companies know. The article is about website designers charging a fee and agreeing to place their clients’ ads on their website even when they have no space on their website. Many companies do not realize this, and it is unethical or even illegal to do that as they are tricking companies into believing that they are getting good space, and actually showing customers their ads — which is not true.

This shows the power of the internet, and although popups are annoying, it is a large market due to the popularity of the internet. Imagine a website full of popups everywhere, in fact in most websites excluding some limited ones such as Wikipedia, most websites have many forms of advertisements in them, along the sides, on the top, at the near bottom. Even when it is not a pop-up necessary, many companies pay to have their companies recognized on popular websites by paying website designers to put their advertisements on their website.

Here is a funny popup for you all:

This is one of Kobe Bryant’s newest signature shoe, it has a lot of quality built into the product. These shoes are a bit different from most basketball shoes which are high tops (to provide ankle protection), Kobe’s new signature shoes all have been low tops because Kobe focuses on quickness and argues that low top shoes allows more room and speed for the feet, and he further points out that even with high tops, if a player is not careful, ankle injuries can still happen on the court.

This advertisement is clearly influenced by The Dark Knight movie as this shoe is named after it, and the advertisement reflects it as well. The shoe came out after the movie which would help in the sales for Kobe, also Kobe’s signature shoes are all set at a price higher then most shoes, since they are good quality and he wants to set them at a prestige since the buyers believe they are getting value added thinking that they will be like Kobe in these shoes.

I think that quality is important in a shoe and having that extra speed or even believing that the shoes gives you that extra speed may enhance your performance also having the name “The Dark Knight” consumers may buy this and think that they can fight and save the world like batman.

During the Halloween weekend I noticed how companies make that extra effort to spice up thier stores with the holiday spirits. Do they do this because they love the holiday or maybe because it attracts customers? Business owners, realize that holidays and festivals bring neighborhoods and communities together, and is a time to enjoy the company and the holiday together. It also gives the company a chance to grow their business through decorations and adding the holiday into their product. Starbucks is one of these companies and has incorporated this tactic into their products as they have come up with new products such as Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino, and the Pumpkin Spice Latte along with other Halloween type products ranging from toys to mugs. Starbucks expanded their market that reaches customers who take part in the fun and holiday spirit. The customers will respect the fact that you enjoy their company outside of your business and that you are really just one of them. This is a great way to build a reputation with your neighbors and is excellent for business growth. With halloween just finishing don’t be surprised to see Starbucks hanging up the Christmas lights and providing more holiday fun with Christmas around the corner.

While browsing the internet I came across a certain product that I was familiar with “Cheetos” and after following the companies trends and products I was quite surprised to see that it had added a new product that I would never have thought they would come up with. This new “Cheetos strawberry” is part of Cheetos new line extension which is apart of there product mix. This new line extension targets a whole new segment for maybe a healthier attempt at there cheesy more unhealthy though of product. However the choice of strawberry is strange to mix with cheese and may be part of their promotional testing stage as they are trying this new product in Japan. If any of you have seen this product or have tried it already im curious to know your thoughts, or opinions on their new product extension.

Source

While browsing through several different ads this M&M advertisement caught my eye. There new way of personalizing your chocolate allowing you to have a special message or symbol on the chocolate is clearly demonstrated in their ad. The creative idea to put the M&M’s in the shape of a keyboard allows the viewer to visualize how you can turn a simple thing into something creative. The new personalized M&M’s appeal to a greater portion of their target market in which their chocolate can be enjoyed by many, and the consumer could have a lot of fun with it. They have added value to their product from going from just chocolate to a message or even a gift that could put a smile on someones face. This can be done online and would get mailed to the address that you would want it to be sent through, so you could share this experience with people all over the world. The online process is simple, as you just enter the text onto the M&M and can view how it would turn out. I think that this new form of personalized M&M’s have positioned themselves to not just be a smaller version of a smartie chocolate, but has also differentiated itself and is adding something different to their chocolates one letter at a time.

iPhone 4 is the newest of the iPhone’s out currently and Apple took a new spin on advertising their new product. Opposed to the other iPhone ads out there on TV, Apple chose to take a more emotionally attached advertisement route for their new product, the iPhone4,  which would help sell a vast amount of products and increase their target market. The new feature of face- time calling allows anyone to keep in touch with family, friends, and other loved ones on a more personal level. Apple chose to focus on this specific aspect of the phone instead of their old approach to flaunt every aspect of their superior phone. However, as the hype of this extra feature was added, Apple in their ad’s have left out certain key details that might change the consumers decision. The leaving out of details such as face-time calling only working on Wi-Fi may restrict the use of it, as we the consumer are not always going to be connected to a network when wanting to use this feature. In the video you can see how having the new product makes it more easier to be with your loved one or to cheer them up then just talking. The leaving out of key details is very common in marketing, in which ads can only say so much and promote their product in little amount of time in which they have to pay for it. Using this time effectively is important to product growth and they don’t want to take up time to say negative things or things that may alter the consumers decisions. You can always hear at the end of ads the fast pace quick ramble of side effects, or things that you should watch out for when using their product for example how red bull now has to to say that “don’t expect red bull to actually give you wings and fly, it helps you temporarily restore mental alertness or wakefulness when feeling fatigue or drowsiness”.

Advertising is a very effective way to promote your product and allow customers to be familiar with it, however when does advertising get to the point where it could actually harm us? This new way of advertising in Edmonton allows taxi drivers to have on the back of their taxi a giant billboard like ad. This is a great way to capture the customers attention, but is it a good idea to put them at risk while driving? If I saw an advertisement for a company while I was driving in front of me, and if something happened and I got in a car accident my attitude and emotion would change and have a negative outlook on the product. Although billboards cost around 900$ a month and this new form of car billboards is only 250$ the means of advertising is a lot cheaper but provides a hidden cost passed onto the customer of danger. We just started to become more cautious and safe about driving as we now have the no texting and phone calls in the car rule and now they are willing to accept this, which really doesn’t make sense as they both distract from the drivers attention yet one is allowed while the other is not. I believe that advertising has become very dominant and a custom to our lives and this trend will continue. If there is an empty space or open spot and companies are willing to pay for it advertising will be there.

Axe

If most of you were wondering why I smelt so delicious and good today it’s this new line of product I was wearing, some of you might have heard of it, it’s called Axe. Just like most of you I was sucked in to the temptation of possessing the so called “axe effect” that one attains after using an axe product. It was not until I took a deeper look at the commercials and several advertisements by this line of product, that I realized that the marketing tools used portray a very unethical and immoral concept. For some of you who are unfamiliar with this, Axe is a line of “personal care product” that comes in forms of a deodorant, shower gel and even hair care products, the beauty of this product is not only is it produced in the different styles but also different scents. The commercial consists of a guy who is spraying Axe over his clothes while women are going crazy over the vigorous scent and dropping dead. This scent is supposed to capture the senses of beautiful woman seducing them to the man who is wearing the product, there for the axe affect. This clever approach to target the young men of our generation takes a toll on a very strong issue faced in today’s society, sexism.  It portrays that a women will practically do anything for a man only because he is wearing an axe product and this itself is very discriminatory towards women. It also objectifies women in over-sexualizing them in commercials. How can a spray lead to women randomly jumping on you? In the other commercials the women go through great lengths to get to him such as running through cars, jumping through obstacles all for the scent of axe. This is hard to believe, since I sprayed axe on me this morning I would expect that all the girls in the marketing room would have been all over me, which unfortunately did not happen, well except for a few ladies who were holding it in. Therefore, Axe advertisements conveys a false image, false advertising as this leads to an unethical commercial as it doesn’t truly show the real axe affect, just a falsified version that helps them sell their product to naive customers who buy into the commercial. Also this is degrading to women because it makes them seem stupid, desperate and easily influenced. So gentlemen unfortunately the ad’s have being fooling you, you’re going to need more than axe to get you that girl, sorry.