Marketing Blog

Blog for my Marketing & Sales Management class. FTP2, 1st year. Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences.

[pfaffiii-blog-blog]

Blog #8 Review on Marketing

Over the past two month I blogged about different aspects of Marketing&Sales this will be my last post. 

I will start with a reflection on my perception of marketing. Before I started this blog I perceived marketing to be just about TV commercials and Billboards. But I learned about so many different marketing techniques. Marketing certainly is an interesting and diverse topic but I am still in the opinion that it is not my goal to end up in a marketing department.Though I still think all the knowledge I attained about marketing is going to help me out somehow on the labor market. What I did enjoyed was the Sales part of the course. I always believed that sales is the right thing for me and the lectures and guest lectures confirmed that. All of the traits and characteristics as salesman has to have are applying on me to a certain degree. Furthermore I already have several contacts to salespeople in interesting companies and my internship/thesis will be about sales somehow.

Blogging was fun, some topics were really interesting and it was even fun to read the blogs of my colleagues. Maybe I will continue my blog someday when I have an idea what to write about

[alizeemarques]

Hey Marvin ! I really liked all your post and this post is a good end to your blog. To answer your question the question mark at the end was to enable the feedbacks to my post. I think you are pretty open with people and that you're at ease in general and I would not be surprised to see you in sales ! It's nice that you confirmed that you like that path. It's nice that you liked posting blogs every weeks, I think a lot of people including myself liked to read them.

[tenhooryacine]

Nature or Nurture?

After many decades of research around the factors that make a great salesperson scientist and psychologists still don’t agree on the extent to which the success of a sales person can be related to their genes and personality or their effort and dedication. 

Like everyone I sometimes have to deal with a salesperson that is particularly good and manages to make me buy a product or make me spend more than my initial budget. I would say that this is related to his/her natural selling talent. These people know their product like no one else so they make sure that you hear the strong points and they try to skip the negative ones. 

I would have to agree that some salespeople seem to be more naturally suited to the job than others.This can be due to their genes, personality, social interactions. This group of people are usually better at building relationships and more able to get their message across. 

(source: http://www.theallusionist.ca/tag/malcolm-gladwell/) 

On the other side there are theories like the 10000 hour theory developed by Malcolm Gladwell that could explain why some people still think that everyone can be trained to do a certain level. According to this theory it takes roughly ten thousand hours of practice to achieve mastery in a field.

To conclude, training a sales person for 10000 hours seems pretty unlikely and expensive so I think that a great sales person needs to have a certain balance between training and natural skills or be extremely talented as training for a low number of hours doesn’t compensate for the lack of natural skills. 

For further reading: 

http://www.wisdomgroup.com/blog/10000-hours-of-practice/

http://www.gaviningham.com/are-good-salespeople-born-or-made/

[alizeemarques]

Hey Yacine ! I really liked your post and you have good reference ! I also think that some people have some characteristics that help them be good salesperson. Even though by trainings and experience and get better I think people with charisma and that are at ease with people make better salespersons.

[danielstockhva]

Sponsored YouTube videos

(image)

In the last few weeks, we have talked about all different aspects related to marketing, and in this final week, I would like to focus on something that I personally find very interesting: sponsored videos on YouTube. 

(image)

Now, as some of you know, the website itself has been around for nearly 10 years now, and has been steadily developing throughout those years. As soon as content creators became noticed and the first few started becoming ‘celebrities’, companies saw them as potential new PR paths and started sponsoring them. This was mostly product placement. And as in a movie the characters would be walking around with a Starbucks drink and it would not be clearly marked as an ad, YouTubers would review products, talk about encounters with companies or recent experiences - as if it was all just coming from themselves, with no influence at all. Their unique selling point was their authenticity, and that was to be kept as intact as possible.

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When the first reports of this broke to the public, viewers did not take it too well because some of them felt betrayed. Since all of this was new and had never happened before, people did not expect their YouTubers to be involved in what was basically paid advertising without disclosing it. 

(image)

Some of them decided it would be best to come clean and be honest about this. Turns out, that to this day, many content creators will say ‘this is sponsored content’, ‘this company sent me on a trip’, ‘thank you for company xy for providing these items’ - and viewers mostly accept that. The YouTuber Joseph Birdsong wrote an elaborate blogpost about his decision to start creating sponsored content after a long time of declining to do so in 2013, and nowadays has switched to doing it regularly, if he sees it fits his personal brand. 

Arguably, if this is done in a way that works well with the content creator’s overall image, I believe these paid videos can create a win-win-win for the company getting exposure to a relevant target group, the content creator getting money for doing something they enjoy, and the audience hearing about a product they might actually be interested in, with prior warning that this is a paid feature.

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However, some companies get it right, and some don’t. Kellogg’s have been doing an overall good job on their Krave cereal campaigns featuring many prominent UK YouTubers. The Irish YouTube couple Brian and Candice made a video for them to help fund their upcoming wedding about 7 months ago. This specific example however shows, how even the tiniest mistake of a company can cause quite some consequences. As part of the rules, each participant had to ‘tag’ another (pre-determined) YouTuber to do the ‘Krave challenge’ next. This couple had to pass it on to British YouTuber KSI, who has an entirely different audience watching him. Eventually, when his fans checked out who he had been tagged by, they left an enormous amount of hate comments on Brian and Candice’s video, prompting them to talk about that in a separate video on their own. (One that I find quite entertaining, so go ahead and give it a watch!)

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To sum this all up: I am happy people are being quite open about sponsorship on YouTube these days, as I don’t think it is inherently ‘bad’ or ‘wrong’. However, there is an incredible amount of sponsorship happening on this platform that remains undisclosed and whether that is ethical or not is a topic for a whole other blog post.

[alizeemarques]

Hi Daniel ! Your post was really good as all the other ones. I really enjoyed reading you posts for the past weeks. You use good example and explain everything clearly, good job ! This post is great, even though I don't follow a lot of youtubers I know that a lot of them are paid to promote something and talk about some product etc. It's quite the same with bloggers. A lot of fashion bloggers that are an inspirations for a lot of people are paid to promote some products. I think it is nice and I would not complain because as you said it propose some products that the viewers would actually be interested into. I hope you'll continue to post after this post!

[sofiabjorkholm-blog]

Why Marketing is important in our society

It is believed that trading has existed for 15 000 years on our planet, and where there is trade there has to be marketing. In today’s society businesses’ revenues reflects on our own well being and without marketing businesses would fail to make profit.

Many companies take advantage by manipulating people and using their persuasion skills in order to generate profit in a non-ethical manner. However, marketing is beneficial for the society when the businesses inform and educate its consumers. Marketing identifies a consumer’s need and explains how the products or services meet that need. It provides learning about a new innovation and what that can do the consumer.  

For the society marketing creates job opportunities, increased tax revenues and an overall economic growth. Additionally, the marketing industry itself creates jobs and wealth to the businesses, when individuals have to use their creative mind how to promote companies and use innovative and new ideas to fit the market. It creates growth of innovations of products; marketing researches are made to get an idea of what would meet consumers need in today’s society and with that develop products that fit consumers needs. 

Three successful companies that have developed their services with the great help of marketing research is Youtube, Twitter and Instagram. 

I believe marketing plays an important role in the society for further development and is a key to economic growth. 

What do you think?

Further reading:

http://blog.marketresearch.com/blog-home-page/bid/334826/How-3-Companies-Used-Market-Research-to-Pivot-their-Businesses

[alizeemarques]

Hey Sofia ! I really liked your last post - as long as the other ones. I liked your point of view on marketing. Indeed it can be really beneficial to or society as it answers to our needs and wishes. It obviously plays a big role in our society, without a lot of people being aware of it. Do you think marketing could be your future career path ? :) Thanks for all those nice posts and I hope that maybe you will continue to post some !

[alizeemarques]

The End

And here we are! This blog post will be the last one as the title can let you imagine.

Before studying Marketing I had no real concrete ideaof what it was. After 8 weeks, I think my knowledge improved a lot and I can clearly see what is marketing about.

I am still really unsure if this could be my future career path. I liked some parts but not all of it. I still have a year before deciding what I want to focus on and having other marketing courses will probably help me with my choice. I really liked the Marketing Communication part, it was my favourite one. Analysing ads to determine the company’s objectives, if they achieved it and what techniques they used is truly interesting. It made me more aware of what companies are trying to do in their ads. When I watch TV, I now try to analyse it to see what technique they used desire, awareness, interest etc.

Source: Business News Daily

However, I am definitely sure that sales is not for me. I never really thought about having a career in sales but now it is completely clear. Even though there are many advantages of being a salesperson such as the money earn with all the commissions (if you are good of course), travel around the world or meet different people, it is not for me. I do not like to approach people to convince them of something in general and I know I would not be at ease. Being a good salesperson also comes from the experiences and the trainings but it is not for me. I think some people are born with some characteristics that make them at ease and better sellers.

So I am still unsure of what I want to do in the future, but at least I have one less possibility on my list!

Source: Shutterstock

Together with the marketing plan that we are creating for the course, this blog has really been helpful in my learning of marketing as it made each weekly subject clearer. Thank you to anyone that read my blog posts and have a good weekend!

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[alizeemarques]

Born or Made?

Is a salesperson born or made? As I searched on the internet I found in a Huffingtonpost article the principal skills needed to be a good salesperson. A good salesperson has a high need for achievement and belief in the ability to control the environment through his/her own actions. A good salesperson is also risk taking and accept easily responsibilities. On top of that, a good salesperson is organised, hardworking, optimistic and charismatic.

Source: Blogmanager

I think that people that have most of these qualities can be seen as born salespersons or natural salespersons. If someone is really charismatic, optimistic and hardworking for instance it could be way easier for this person to sell something rather than someone that is shy and unconfident for instance. However, I think that everything needs to be practice. Even though you can run, if you practice and practice you could then run easier, faster and longer. As Kimberly Shih also mentioned during a guest lecture in my marketing and sales class, experiences help you to get better at selling every times. With experience, you can anticipate the customers’ reactions, questions or what problem you may encounter during the selling process. You can be optimistic and charismatic but if you have not been in a similar situation you cannot anticipate and prepare for anything.

To me, a good salesperson is made. However, someone can be born with characteristics and skills that can make it easier and that can make you learn quicker.

For further readings:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisette-howlett-/are-salespeople-born-or-m_b_3644206.html?

http://www.highprobsell.com/html/born_to_sell.html

[alizeemarques]

KFC and the commercial fail

A good advertisement can really boost a company image and the sales. However, a bad advertisement can have a bad impact on the brand.

Source: RF tektonik

In 2010, KFC released a new commercial in Australia. Their purpose was to promote their backyard buckets to share. In the commercial, you can see a white man surrounded by black people. In order to get out of “the awkward situation” as stated in the commercial, the white man hands out a bucket of fried chicken to the black people. This was their strategy to promote their bucket. Obviously, even though they probably thought that it would be funny, this commercial has been seen as racist. When the commercial reached America, people cried out the racist nature of it.

They did not really do a big effort on the design, or neither did anything creative. They just filmed as if it was during a football game. They showed the black people dancing, singing and making music and the white guy annoyed in the crowd.

This advertisement was quickly withdraw because of the racist nature of it and because people reacted really badly, which I completely understand. I think when making an advertisement, even when trying to be funny, using stereotypes like that is a really bad strategy. A lot of people felt offended by this commercial, and even while I was watching it, I felt a bit uncomfortable.

For furher readings:

http://owni.eu/2011/03/12/racism-in-advertising-50-shocking-examples/

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2010/jan/06/kfc-advertisement-accused-of-racism

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/05/kfcs-racist-ad-australian_n_412002.html?

[gregorycbs]

The grey market, an individual that buys an item in a country with low or no taxation, and brings it to another country to sell it, and earn money on it. It´s an easy way of making money, and legal, but not authorized. But is it wrong to do such a thing?

In the Netherlands many people buy a car in...

[alizeemarques]

Hey Gregory! I really like your example on grey market. The fact that people buy cars in Germany is really common. Even in France lots of people do it as well. My dad for instance got his car from Germany and indeed the prices are cheaper!

[alizeemarques]

The Grey Market and us

To a lot of people the notion of « Grey market » is foreign. I must admit, I never heard about it before a few days ago. It “involves the sale of goods through meansother than what was intended or approved by the original maker of a product”(WiseGEEK). Numerous people, including myself, buy products from the grey market without knowing it.

Source: WallpaperKid

           Electronic products for instance are often sold on the grey market. A lot of shops are selling cameras, computers, phones and other similar items without the consent of the manufacturers. For that reason, the products are often cheaper. A Canon camera could cost $279 in a shop that is authorized by Canon to sell it and the same camera could cost $239 in a shop that does not have the consent of Canon. For us buyers, it seems better to buy the same product for a lower price. I do not see why I should buy a product at $279 when I can have the exact same at $239. However, those products sold in unauthorized shops are not backed with a warranty. If you have a problem with your camera and you want to use the warranty it is not possible. Canon did not allowed this transaction and even though it is the same product, the company does not know if any piece in the product have been changed.

Source: Canon Price Watch 

           I think for some products I would rather pay more and have a good warranty. However, for others I would definitely prefer to buy the one with the cheapest price. What about you?

For further research:

http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-the-gray-market.htm

http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,142760,00.html

http://www.biztips.co.uk/the-grey-market-explained

http://www.bbb.org/new-york-city/get-consumer-help/articles/gray-market-goods/

[alizeemarques]

Apple and the continuous improvement

Apple has been known for its innovative computers, phones, music player and tablets. The company innovateseach year with new generation of products with new features. From September2013 to September 2014 the company made a profit of almost $40 billion, evenmore than the year before ($37 billion).

Source: Apple

The company released its firstiPhone in 2007. Since that release, the company does not stop to innovate andimprove the product. Every year, a new improved version of the iPhone is released. In total, 10 versions of the iPhone have been created since 2007, the 1st generation, the 3G, the 3GS, the 4, the 4S, the 5, the 5c, the 5S, the 6 and the 6 Plus. The last two have been released on the market since September 2014 and rumours are already talking about an iPhone 6S that could come on the market this year.

Source: Apple

Electronic products are quickly improved and new features are added. Apple knows it well and due to all those changes in technology, the company must constantly improve its products to keep on being a leader on this market.

Being innovative, Apple does not stick with the only type of products they are selling. In 2010, Apple released the iPad, an innovative tablet that was very profitable for the company. Since then, the company improves it and creates new generations and also created it in a smaller size in 2012 (iPad mini). Moreover, the company is going to release on the market its first Apple Watch this year to compete with these new “intelligent” watches that came on the markets the last months.  

Source: Apple

For further readings:

https://www.apple.com/watch/timekeeping/

https://www.apple.com/iphone/

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2014/10/20Apple-Reports-Fourth-Quarter-Results.html

http://www.android.com/intl/fr_fr/wear/

http://appleinnovation.blogspot.nl/

http://www.ibtimes.com/google-smartwatch-release-date-approaches-lg-nexus-watch-specs-leak-android-wearable-sdk-coming

[michellekrevetzky-deactivated20]

[alizeemarques]

Over the last few years, globalization has become a commonfact. The world isn’t divided in countries or even continents for that matter.The world is slowly becoming one big happy place. But is it so...

Hi Michelle! I found it really interesting that you tried to identify in which categories some companies are putting you into. As I did my article on McDonald's I also liked to hear your point on view on this. I liked the fact that you gave some examples of differences between McDonald's products in different countries based on your own experience.

[cameeremak-blog]

Don’t you hate it when you’re in a foreign country, craving some McDonalds and they do not have that delicious yellow McDonalds mayonnaise that they sell here in the Netherlands? It doesn’t matter if you go to a different McDonalds restaurant, because that delicious sauce is only available here.  But why?...

[alizeemarques]

Hi Camee! As I have also wrote about McDonald's on that subject it was interesting to read your point of view. I liked the fact that you talked about the advertising campaigns that are different and the fact that they also prepare food differently. You did a really good job

[alizeemarques]

Marketing research, the Key of Success?

Before a company can introduce a product into the market, researches have to be made. You have to know which customers you want to reach and what those potential customers want, need and finally prefer in order to create a product that they will actually buy. That is why marketing research is essential. It helps defining the specific market you want to enter, the need or want your product will fulfil, and identify the preferences of the target customer.

To link this article to my previous one I will take the example of McDonald’s again. In my last article, I have shown that McDonald’s does an amazing job when adapting to the customers all around the world with different product in different countries (see article “McDonald’s, the King of fast-food?”). The company does a great job in the global context due to its collection of data and good marketing research.

As present in more than 100 countries the company has to do research on the local culture of each countries/regions. The company has defined their objectives and collected data about the customers before analysing it and implement an action plan.  Each country/region can have really different cultures from one another and it is important to know that their needs and preferences are different. They have to do it really carefully in order not to fail. For instance, when McDonald’s came to India, the company had to do profound researches about the culture. There are Muslims people that do not eat pork, the cow is sacred and at the same time there is a large Hindu and vegetarian population in the country so the company had to adapt and change their usual menus composed of Big Mac for instance. They obviously did a great marketing research before opening their first restaurant.

Source: McDonald's India

The great market-product-customer fit is due to a deep marketing research, necessary for a company  not to do a big flop. Collecting as much as data possible is always a plus for the company. The marketing research is an on-going process. Customers preferences and needs change over time. McDonald’s collects information about its customers through its websites, its mobile app, its online surveys, its free wifi in its restaurants etc. Despite problems due to privacy, collection of information about the customers are needed by companies to succeed and grow.

For further readings:

http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/privacy.html

http://ojica.fiu.edu/index.php/ojica_journal/article/viewFile/19/18

http://www.mcdonaldsindia.com/menu.html

[alizeemarques]

McDonald's, the king of fast-food?

Source: McDonald's

McDonald's is famous all around the world and is present in more than 100 countries. The company serves 70 million people around the world every day, which is colossal.

The company tries to understand their consumers’ behaviors in order to sell more and therefore make more profits. The company knows that people around the world eat differently due to their culture. A person from Spain would not have the same eating habits as someone from Korea, Canada or even Kenya for instance. Due to those differences, the company has adapted their products to each countries/regions.

Even though some products are the same all around the world (ex: Big Mac) some products are present only in the country/region they have been created for. In Singapore, the chain proposes the McRice, in Hong-Kong it proposes the Green Tea & Red Bean Ice Cream Sundae, in France there is the McBaguette etc. McDonalds knows that those products could only be popular in some countries due to the culture. I don’t think that, in general, Europeans would like to try a Sundae with the taste of green tea and red beans.  

The company really gets its customers and does not only creates products depending on the countries, it also adapts the size of the menus depending on the countries!

Source: Buzzfeed

In the US people are used to have a larger size of meal than in Europe for example. Their cup are much bigger and their fries portions too. America is known to be a country with a high level of obesity and to be a country where people eat a lot. In response to that, McDonald's adapted its menus.

As everyone knows, McDonald's' prices are different from a country to another. The prices are of course adjusted to the country's currency. The highest prices for McDonald's are in Norway and the lowest are in Ukraine. 

Source: Buzzfeed

I think that McDonald's' global strategy is well done and that it’s one of the reason why McDonald's is still popular in more than 100 countries and part of the first fast-foods chains. They know that they have to adapt to be successful in the global context and they also know how to.

 Different McDonald's products from around the world:

http://www.weirdasianews.com/2010/03/23/blank-interesting-menu-items-mcdonalds-asia/

http://www.buzzfeed.com/jessicamisener/mcdonalds-items-you-cant-get-in-the-us#.srNNynG2n

http://twistedsifter.com/2011/12/exotic-mcdonalds-dishes-around-the-world/

For other further readings:

http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/country/map.html

[tenhooryacine]

Marketing ethics are the basic principles and values that govern whether the practices of a company promoting a product or service to customers are ethical or not. In other words ethical marketing is about whether a firms marketing decision is morally right or wrong. Ethics is mostly a matter of...

[alizeemarques]

I like the fact that in your article you mentioned a company that had been rewarded for its ethical behaviour and that you also talk about one that was ranked as the least ethical. You mentioned why the Monsanto Co was considered as an unethical company, however, I would also like to know why Gap is perceived as an ethical company and what does the company in order to be ethical. I would also like to know your point on the unethical actions of some companies. For instance: Do you think it is okay? Do you think that something could be done against that ?

[mariesd]

Ethical marketing consist in seeking fairness, responsibility and honesty. Yet, we can see alcohol advertisement in the everyday life. The alcohol companies do not hesitate to adopt unethical behaviors in order to gain a competitive advantage. And, unethical behaviors are not automatically...

[alizeemarques]

I think that you made a good point and I agree that promoting a product which is bad for our health is unethical. Companies want to make money and sometimes they do not really care about how they are making it. Even though promoting alcohol is legal it is still unethical like you said. There are lots of products which are not good for us that are still promoted (junk food, cigarettes..). Despite some actions made to lower the "risk" of these products (campaign for better food, campaign in order to help people to get rid of their addictions..), these products will always be promoted by some companies to my opinion.

[alizeemarques]

WALMART'S GEOGIRL LINE, UNETHICAL ?

I think that all little girls have tried make-up to look like women and to play at least once in their lives. As alittle girl I liked to try my mom’s make-up and act like a grown-up. However, I really worn make-up myself only when I was a teenager and I started high-school, my mom would not have let me before anyway, which I consider normal.

In 2011, Walmart launched a make-up line aiming girls between 8 and 12 years-old called GeoGIRL. The line promotes actively the environment-friendly part of the product. The products of the line are made of almost 100% natural ingredients and recyclable packaging.

Is this whole line really ethical? The video above is mainly promoting the environmental-friendly part of the products. Nowadays, environment-friendly products are growing and are now expected by the customers. It becomes more and more common and every company is promoting this part of the product to sell it. I think that environment-friendly products are a good thing. However, I do not think that a company should promotes make-up targeting girls between 8 and 12 years-old. At that age girls want to be grown-ups and look like their mothers but I do not think that introducing make-up to kids is a good thing. Girls of that age should just play with make-up, not wear it as a normal accessory. I think that the company added the environment-friendly part into the product to make people think about the good part of the product when they think of it, rather than the fact that the product is for kids, which is for me inappropriate.

To conclude I would say that, to me, the GeoGIRL line is unethical. What is your point of view?

Video: Janine Coppola