Viral Campaign

I was doing some research for my Public Relations course when I stumbled upon this viral video that OfficeMax was using to generate some hype about there back to school sales. The video features a man buying art from an art dealer but when he goes to pay the man he only has pennies. The premise of the video is that OfficeMax has lots of supplies for sale for 1 cent, and although this guy doesn't accept pennies, OfficeMax does.

Here's the clip...



I think this is an incredibly clever way of getting a viral campaign started. The 'penny pranks' as they are called on YouTube have thousands of hits each, and are a smart, funny way to market your product. I think these ads are a great example of what viral campaign is all about.

Guerrilla marketing campaign

After talking about guerrilla marketing in class last week, our group figured it would be cool to try and research some of the more creative innovative forms of the technique to get an idea of what we wanted to use for our product. One of the coolest ones that I found was done by the website half.com. Their idea was to pay the small 360 person town of Halfway, Oregon 100,000 dollars if they agreed to change their town name to half.com for a year. Well, the plan worked because within days the website was on the Today Show, was covered in The Wall Street Journal, and the stunt was called "one of the greatest publicity coups in history," by Time Magazine.

In my opinion this is one of the coolest marketing ideas I've heard of. It's fast, easy and generated a good amount of hype about the website, and what more could you ask for in a guerrilla marketing campaign.

The site, Half.com is now owned by Ebay, so the owners did just fine for themselves... http://www.half.ebay.com/

Another Product Placement

I was taking a break from wrapping up a paper I have to turn in tomorrow, and I figured I'd sit back and watch a movie. This time the choice was Transformers. As I was sitting there watching I noticed how ridiculous the product placement is throughout this entire movie. The more you notice it, the more annoying it gets. Lets start first with the robots, they are all GM cars, and they take every opportunity to show you why they are such great, cool cars. Then later on in the movie when they are in the epic final battle the director/producer or whoever is in charge of product placement decided to have an Escalade (another GM vehicle) as well as a mountain dew vending machine and an Xbox 360 turn into robots. It was some of the most blatant and obvious product placement I have ever seen, and it honestly ruined that portion of the movie.

Heres the Mountain Dew vending machine before...



And here it is in its full glory, launching pop cans at some poor woman.

Pricing Plan

Skimming the market is a term used to describe a product that is originally priced very high but then after it has been on the market for a while the cost comes back down to a more reasonable cost. There are tons of products that do this on a regular basis, some more so than others. Here are a few that come to mind when I think about it. The sony PS3 was originally 499 dollars but is now down to 299, the ipad is currently selling at a very high price, but once the novelty wears off it will drop, xbox360, the new Panasonic 3d TV and many other things are all guilty of price skimming. It is a smart strategy because it forces people to pay more for something they really want and will fork out for. I feel like it only works for more expensive products because skimming a cheap one simply won't make a difference.

Here's a picture of the new Panasonic 3D TV, which is currently skimming the market.

The Proposal - Product Placement

Its kind of hard to tell, but it is a Starbucks cup!

I was sitting down for a lovely evening with the fellas and we figured we would get in touch with our feminine sides and watch the Proposal starring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. In one of the opening scenes Sandra Bullock has to fire one of her employees and while doing so she is holding a Starbucks cup waving it in the face of the camera. It is a blatant product placement because the cup is obviously empty or it would've been spilling all over the place. While watching it all I could look at was the cup and wasnt looking at the movie. It was cool to see product placement firsthand.

Managing Products

Managing a product line is crucial part of the marketing process because it enables companies to establish marketing plans, change them, mediate the amount of money being spent and analyze the effectiveness of a plan. It is easy for us as consumers to just sit back and see things as they come but in all reality a lot of work goes into each commercial we see or each marketing strategy we notice. There are many different types of branding like retro branding, national branding, private-label brands, generic brands and many others. One of the first steps in the marketing strategy and management processes is determining which type of branding a product falls under. One of the best marketing schemes right now in my opinion is the new Old Spice commercials. They have determined what type of branding they are, which is a national brand, that appeals to all males in the country. Because of this realization they then made their commercials, packaging and product all appeal to the average male. The following commercial outlines their new line of deodorants...



This commercial explains a new set of scents that appeals to the 'real men' in America, and I think it does an effective job of capturing our attention and showing an entertaining ad.

Creating a Product Line

A product line is when producers expand upon one individual product and release different products that compliment it or compete with it. This gives companies the possibility to dominate a market and control a market segment. When we look at different products today almost every company has come out with some sort of product line. In class we talked about Pyramid Brewery releasing a different line of beers with similar advertisement and packaging as well as Old spice releasing a wide array of different deodorants.

One example i can think of that truly represents the importance of a product line is something that most car companies do. They offer a a product line of cars, featuring trucks, suv's, coupes, and hybrids, different but similar products that help them gain a portion of the market. As these products reach there maturity peak they will see their highest number of sales and as they begin to decline the companies will develop a new design and new features for their next set of products.

Creating New Products

New products are announced everyday, but only few actually make a large impact on everyday society. One particular product that I noticed that was revolutionary and has seemed to stick in the market is the Dyson Vacuum Cleaner. It took a different approach to the normal vacuum market, introduced a new idea and product and managed to influence the market and become a household item.



This vacuum is a continuous innovation that has led to a newer improved specialty product. It is not something that we will see in every home, but in many cases we will.

Target Marketing

Target Marketing is crucial to the success of advertising. The sole purpose of it is to spend money in a demographic that you know are interested in the product. Instead of wasting resources and creating a product that appeals to everyone you focus your efforts in a product segment in which you know you can be successful. I think a great example of this is the product Axe. Axe advertises to the teenager and young adult males who want to smell good and obviously attract girls. The entire marketing scheme is based off of this assumption including stylish packaging and commercials showing guys that used axe being chased by beautiful women. It is a genius marketing plan because it solely appeals to a strict demographic, but has the potential to do extremely well within its segment. Axe is marketed to 'Generation Y' and no one else, and this is a sound plan. Axe is a relatively new product, and once established in this market segment they may be able to branch out and expand their product. Market fragmentation is when a company has products in different market segments that appeal to different demographics. When Axe grows they can begin to partake in market fragmentation, but for now it is in their best interest to remain with their target market of 'Generation Y'. The following is a commercial that obviously advertises to their select demographic.

Business to Business Marketing

One of the first companies that popped to my mind when thinking about business to business marketing was IBM. This company is founded on the ability to make solutions and ideas that other companies can use to make life easier. It is one of the most recognizable companies in the world, and its sole purpose is to create products and services for other companies to use. This ad I am about to show you is an ad that promotes the use of a certain server that can hold more, and will make life easier for companies.



I think IBM is the perfect example for B2B marketing, although I do not personally think that their ads are very effective we can definitely see the B2B aspect.

Chapter 4 - Consumer Behavior

This ad is a great example of how companies use consumer behavior to market a product. Consumer behavior is how people express who they are, and is determined by their purchasing patterns because it talks about how they chose to run their lives. This victoria secret ad speaks to women who want to be sexy, and appear beautiful for their men. Victoria Secret can use this ad to determine how their consumers (women) react to the thought of sexuality. They can use this commercial to determine whether or not women buy their products as a neccesity or because it will help them feel better, feel sexier and feel more successful. It is a crafty marketing plan that goes unnoticed but is effective for the company research.

Market Research

Market Research is crucial in the success of a marketing plan. A company must be completely aware of who they are marketing to, why they are marketing to them, and how to successfully accomplish that. Most of us have been approached to participate in different forms of market research, whether it is a telephone survey, mail survey, or focus group study. The focus group offers most companies the best insight into a successful marketing plan. The following video is a good example of how companies use a focus group to improve products...



We can see that Nike is using these soccer players to decide which products best suite them, and most likely how they best suite similar soccer players across the country. It is an easy effective way of deciding how to market a product.

Week 2 - The Strategic Plan/Mission Statement

We watched this Domino's ad in class and I think that it is a perfect example of a strategic marketing plan. When the pizza chain first began their mission statement was probably along the lines of "offering customers the best pizza possible with the best customer service in town". As the company grew and expanded they obviously digressed from their original strategic plan. When they began did they see themselves offering bad pizza, poor service and an unpleasant experience? No, and that is why they recently re-vamped their entire mission statement and strategic plan. They presumably have returned to the ideals of their original marketing plan and are using this new marketing scheme as a way to inform distanced customers.

Week 1 - Intro to Marketing

This ad was from a year or two ago and was aimed at young emerging athletes across America. This ad is a great example of New Era Marketing because it is not advertising a product but is promoting an idea. This idea is that unless you use Nike products, you will not be able to compete, and by purchasing Nike products you will be more successful, intimidate your opposition and make you feel like a more competitive athlete. Are any of these things true? I don't think so, I'm sure Nike is no better or worse than Adidas, but by making consumers believe they need their product to be stylish and fit in Nike successfully exemplifies the New Era Marketing.