Mainly Melissa!

Having graduated as a marketing student in a very challenging time has been extremely difficult; however as they say "when there is a will there is a way." After reading an article in the Financial Post earlier this week I had a lot to think about. Several companies have been forced to make several cutbacks in order to survive; nevertheless skimping too much on your marketing/pr budget may be tremendously detrimental to your company’s future wellbeing. Obviously times are tough and budget cutbacks must be made, this is no doubt unavoidable.

Traditional media is expensive and the results of its effectiveness are hard to measure. Unless the money is there I would not suggest this path. Non-traditional media which includes such tactics as social media marketing has almost zero cost and can be very effective depending on your audience. There are also other options such as experiential marketing which can also be extremely attractive.

Before we can even start thinking about how to promote we must think about the other 3 p’s (product, price and place). Is the current product meeting consumer needs? What are the current pricing options? Is bundling an option? Where are the products currently available? Where else should the product be available? After we can answer all of these we can now move onto promotions.

We currently live in the ever popular Web 2.0 world. It’s time for more companies to take advantage of this. Skittles and Doritos are great examples of companies which have utilized social media and crowd sourcing to their advantage. Currently Skittles website has been taken over by Twitter,Facebook, and YouTube; giving followers/friends of the website full ability to add their own videos, pictures, and comments to the website. This is a great way to create buzz and keep your brand interactive with your consumers. Doritos’ Crash the Super Bowl contest encouraged its consumers to create their own commercial and submit it to the Doritos’ for the chance to havea their commercial shown during the Super Bowl. Creating a contest such as this will help promote the brand more than having Doritos' creative team create an ad.

Network! Network! Network! Another way to promote yourself via networking events. Word of Mouth can be a very powerful tool. Being active in your local business community can really pay off. There are several networking opportunities available for those apart of the community. These events usually attract important decision makers, and key business people in the community so its a great place to go to spread the word about your company.

The limited budgets that marketers are now facing is forcing them to become more creative and innovative. This is a very interesting time and several companies are seeking experiential markeing/advertising firms who are ready and willing to break the mold.

Shortly After Obama's national call for service Starbucks announced that it was launching a new campaigning that will entice people to contribute to their community. The "I'm In" campaign encourages Starbucks drinkers to commit 5 hours of community service in exchange for a free tall coffee.

Starbucks, not unlike many other companies, have hoped onto the Obama train. Since Obama the beginning of his campaign Obama has started several marketing trends which other political leaders and companies have adopted.

Whereas many companies will align themselves to a cause merely to just increase public appeal; Starbucks' "I'm In" campaign lacks the gimmicky feel that many campaigns can give off.

I would be interested to see more Vancouver companies take part in campaigns similar to this. At this moment in time i am unaware of any similar campaign in Vancouver, however I could be wrong.

Traffic and parking appear to be a real issue in Vancouver. With the new investments that the government has put into public transportation companies should encourage their employees to use public transportation. Currently there are such programs as "Ride your Bike to Work Week" however these programs lack the incentive which would entice people to actually ride their bike to work... In addition to this unless you lived fairly near to your work place riding your bike is not feasable. Introducing a public transit campaign and providing people with a proper incentive would help encourage more users to use public transit. As a result of this more people will be using transit which would encourage the government to spend more in public transit and extend lines to other areas.

The campaign can even be called "Linked" and can have some social media aspects to it. A Translink Facebook app. telling people your bus route and who you saw on the bus and who your buddies on the bus are. Futhermore, people on Twitter can tweet if buses are late, on time, or jam packed.

I'm already loving the idea of this campaign!

you can go here http://pledge5.starbucks.com to find out more about the Starbucks' I'm In campaign.

This week the Vancouver Sun reports that Rogers has announced the pricing for the new iphone and generated a buzz surrounding the new gadget. To release this information Rogers enlisted their very own social media guru, Keith McArthur, to handle the details of this release. McArthur chose to release this information via Twitter.

Utilizing Twitter in this instance was fantastic. The following on Twitter and the targeted iphone user overlap therefore McArthur was able to successfully reach his audience. However if McArthur was releasing a press release for fixodent, twitter may not be as effective. The majority of users who use fixodent fall in the category of unactive on the Forrestors "technographic scale", therefore it would be unlikely that they would have a twitter account. However that is not to say that silver seniors are not present online. There is a portion of seniors who actively online and are creators or critics. The only way to find this out where these seniors are is to do research.

I thought that this was an interesting read found on eMarketer.

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007122

This week Marketing Sherpa discusses how to make video ads more effective. According to the results by making an add more interactive the effectiveness of the ad will increase significantly.

During the Super Bowl Crest aired a 3d ad and created a micro site based on the ad. I felt that the campaign was extremely interactive both online and offline. Offline the characters interacted with the viewers at home. Online users were able to pick what type of kisses they would like to receive. Unfortunately the site is down now so you can't visit the site, however you can read more about the website here http://www.bizzia.com/behindthebuzz/crest-whitestrips-kiss-me-in-3d/. This add was different than the normal whitening ad that is usually seen by most consumers and the fact that I can still recall this add after 4 months should emphasizes the originality and the effectiveness of this advert.

I have recently just started reading Martin Lindstrom's book Buyology. The book discusses a topic which I found exceedingly interesting. Product placements have been extremely popular in movies and television shows for several years now. In the past one or two brands were featured in movies. Today movies are jam packed with product placements; many of which most people don't even notice. For example in the hit movie, “He’s Just Not that Into You”, I did not know or even care that the fruit on the display were products from Dole. Lindstrom goes further and says that in order for a brand to penetrate the viewer’s brain the brand must be integrated into the storyline.

“We have no memory of brands that don’t play an integral part in the storyline of a program. They become white noise, easily and instantaneously forgotten... Products that play an integral part in the narrative of a program are not only memorably, they appear to have a double barrelled effect... They not only increase our memory of the product, but they actually weaken our ability to remember the other brands.” –Martin Lindstrom, Buyology

Companies are spending millions of dollars to feature their products in movies and television shows, however most of this money is gone to waste. Why are companies spending millions of dollars to have their products appear subtly in the background of various television shows/movies? Technology advances such as PVR & TIVO which allows viewers to skip commercials have forced advertisers to get you to notice their product during the television show.

If product placements in movies and television shows are not paying off where should companies invest their advertising budget? Online advertising, commercials before movies, or product placements in video games may be the answer for some companies.

I think it would be very interesting to see the effectiveness between brands which are integrated into the storyline in movies/television vs. brands which are integrated into the storylines of books. Almost every kid can name you the various types candy from the Harry Potter books and what kind of broom Harry rides. Because you are actively seeing the brand spelt out in words when you are reading, I have a feeling that product placement in books maybe far more effective than in movies/television.