Eliška Černá

  Marketing & Sales Management class at University of Applied Sciences Amsterdam

[damenlaurien-blog-blog-blog]

A healthy lie

A discussion that has became more and more popular over time regarding superfoods is the relationship between being healthy and making money.

Since there is no legal or regulatory definition for superfood the term is used by a lot of marketers and the media to describe these SUPERfoods that claim to be extra nutritional and beneficial. Everything can be a superfood if it wants to be a superfood :). But are these superfoods really beneficial for your health or is the image of using superfoods just part of a certain lifestyle?

Superfood have gained more popularity over time, but criticism is also increasing. People became more aware of the fact that these foods don’t MAKE you healthier, they just can be part of a healthy image and can be included in e healthy lifestyle. They are only another choice of food and nothing really special..

Here is article with further information about superfoods being overrated

http://www.prevention.com/food/healthy-eating-tips/8-superfoods-are-overrated?s=4

04/02/2015 - Laurien Damen - University of Applied Sciences

[elicerna]

Before we talked abot superfoods in class, I didnt know what it actually was. I, personally, still think its quite stupid and I dont know how can someone actually believe it. For me this is 100% marketing strategy with no purpose of helping people be healthier.

[carlijnoffereins]

Valentine’s day: About true love or just a successful marketing stunt?

Some people arealready counting down the days until the 14th of February; the day we areshowing people we love them, we call it Valentine’s day. However, businesses only think of (new) marketing strategies to generate very high profits. The shops are overloaded with adorable presents to give to your beloveds and restaurants are fully booked with tables for two. Even fast-food company MacDonald’s comes up with a new marketing stunt especially designed for Valentine’s day. Some McDonald’s customers will have the opportunity to pay for their meals by performing various ‘acts of love’. For example, instead of paying for a Big Mac, you may be asked to hug someone you like.

The marketing stunts around Valentine’s day could be an example of questionable marketing ethics. It suggests that if you spend enough money, you can ‘buy’ love. People might feel obliged to buy a present for their beloveds to meet up their expectations. And businesses play along with these expectations and take advantage of people’s believes and hopes. But overall, we can’t buy happiness, right?

[elicerna]

I, perosnally, dislike Valentine's day because even though it has its deep roots in Rome, nobody knows where it actually comes from anymore or why people celebrate this day. Before I learnt about it further, I though it is so popular just because US, and whats popular in US is popular everywhere. And thats kindof sad

[shimtrain-blog-blog]

Why the Chinese are the worst hipsters of all

Today’s blog regards an extremely important topic. A topic close to the heart of all those working in international marketing.

CONSUMER BEHAVIOR IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT.

So first, what is consumer behavior? Without typing into Google or running to find my good friend Collin; when it boils down to it, in my opinion consumer behavior is the study of trying to define most shared motivations for why we buy things. In doing so one can make assumptions about particular trends in a population, the behaviors themselves.

For example, the fact more people than normal shop on black Friday is a commonly perceived consumer behavior.

The motivation - because they did it. Wait.. No. But.. that doesn’t make sense. people shop on Black Friday because stuffs cheaper.

Not in China.

I am aware what the UK has also recently adopted Black Friday, but what I’m talking about is something greater. Trend setting.

Why is it that nowadays the Chinese love Starbucks and upmarket designer brands? They never used to. I believe what we are currently observing is a shift in culture. What is considered cool and in in China is whatever is happening in the West, hipster, I think not.. It’s like cultureception, a culture within another culture and it is what it is. Maybe in a parallel universe the people in the USA are walking around drinking strong tea wearing white face masks.

But what is most important to take from this is to acknowledge the non-tangible power that trend setting has. Trends can shifts markets by influencing consumer behavior on a massive scale. 

But how you start a trend? I don’t think anyone has a formula, to me that’s whats mind blowing.

#consumerbehavior #

?

[elicerna]

Cool article, I think that it starts with a simple group of people that make something "cool" and then it only depends if more people join them or not..

[jamesagilbert-deactivated201604]

Coolhunting

In today’s blog I would like to go into cool hunting. Marketing research is very important in todays market and companies are spending billions on obtaining the most accurate information on consumers and their behaviour. One method I am interested in in cool hunting, and this is where people make observations and predictions in changes of new or existing cultural trends. The main idea here is spotting trends for marketers to take advantage of. Firms, focus groups, undercover, and online cool hunters are common.

Picture 1: Example of emerging trends coming back into fashion

I think being that in order to be a good cool hunter you need to be aware of the different types of stereotypes and being updated of ways to obtain necessary information for prediction. Cool hunters are important for companies in order to stay one step ahead of the game and bring out products that are coming back into fashion. One example of a product i have personally seen reappear in the market is the nike shoe named “huarache”. This product originally made a debut in 1991 but then lost popularity. Today the huarache has reappeared and is selling at staggering rates in all sneaker stores across Europe and America.

Picture 2: The Nike Huarache

Personally i don’t find this shoe very appealing, it just goes to show how style and out of the box designs can reappear into the market as global trends adjust. To me, this shoe looks like a pair of Crocs and simple sneakers combined, just like it has been projected all over the internet. Below is picture of how some people see it.

Picture 3: Some consumers view of the shoe

To round up todays post i see how useful cool hunting can be to companies. Being able to spot the changes and evolvement in trends is a very useful skill for marketers in research. Helping them to stay ahead of competitors and produce something that will be successful is key. No matter some consumers view of the product, whether it be good looking or not very appealing like the nike huarache is to me. The trends are dependent on the majority on consumers who do switch to and old look, and other who will eventually follow.

[elicerna]

Nice article James :) I think thats the fact that old trends come back into fashion is actually a good think in terms of saving money haha like me..I used to do horseriding like 10 years ago and I had special kind of shoes for that. After I stopped, those shoes were somewhere in my closet for next 10 years until i decided to go to Amsterdam and found out that exactly those kind of shoes are in fashion now.

[serenamdania]

Skempi: Music Innovation at its Finest

Screenshot of Skempi’s Facebook Page, visit at: https://www.facebook.com/skempimusic

Skempi? What is Skempi? This fun word that even has a uniquesound when spoken aloud. Well I am glad to be the one to introduce it to you. Skempi is an online music streaming service focusing exclusively on Caribbean music. One could think of it as a Spotify for the Caribbean, but its not Spotify, it’s Skempi!

When I first heard of this idea, me being a Caribbean music lover, I thought it was genius. Skempi’s main focus lies on the music pertaining to the ABC islands; Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao. This innovative service is really appealing to me as I was born in Curacao. I have that Caribbean rhythm running in my blood, and I can’t help it! With Skempi I am able to find music from my island and many other Caribbean Islands dating back to over 50 years ago, or if I prefer something more relevant I also have modern tunes at my disposal. Skempi provides a bank of a variety of music genres specific to the Caribbean. Currently they are one of the only platforms that provide this kind of service; thus they have no direct competition. Therefore making them unique! 

Skempi released its Beta service around exactly two years ago in March of 2012. Since then they have received tons positive responses, and are continuing to grow. They are working on releasing new services in the future, and if you want to stay up to date, follow them on Facebook. If you also want to learn more about this diverse taste in sound I recommend you check out the service yourself. Expand your cultural knowledge by listening to music in a different language. In this case the prominent language is: Papiamentu. I encourage you to see how far your taste for new music can stretch, go check out Caribbean music at: www.Skempi.com

[elicerna]

I have never heard of this app either and ai actually enjoy carribean music, however, not as much as you I guess haha but the idea of having all songs that sou like and making it easy to search through is cool.

[carlijnoffereins]

Innovative product; The Kitchen Safe!

Chocolate, candy, alcoholics, cigarettes, or maybe your secret guiltypleasure; these are all examples of tempting products. Of course these examples are subjective, one person could be very tempted by his PlayStation (controller), and the next person finds his or her pleasure in food. Some people are disciplined and keep one’s hands off these temptations, but for other people this is harder. When we were children, our parents tried to teach us to modestly consume certain products. One candy a day, 30 minutes watching TV and typically for now, 20 minutes playtime on the iPad. Well, it’s not always easy for parents to stick to these rules.

But recently I found a product which is the perfect solution to this; the Kitchen Safe! The Kitchen Safe is a tool which helps you to prevent you from following bad habits. At moments where you for instance can’t help but reach into the cookie jar a few too many times. Before you know it, all you’re left with a couple of crumbs and a bad feeling that you ate too much. The safe is equipped with a lock and a timer. The box can’t be opened until the timer hits zero, which you can set for 1 minute up to ten days.

The effectiveness of this tool is backed by research. Research has shown that precommitment is the ultimate way to beat temptation. Precommitment means committing to a smart choice early, when you know you will be tempted by bad choices later. The Kitchen Safe is a tool that enables us to precommit to smart choices.

In my opinion this could be a very helpful and powerful tool. Think of a situation when you really want to stick to your diet, but you’re not the most disciplined person. Put the maximum amount of cookies in the safe and it will help you controlling your portions. Nice, innovative product, isn’t it?!

Sources: http://www.thekitchensafe.com/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/07/kitchen-safe-lock-box_n_6423908.html

[elicerna]

Haha this is a genius idea! I would definitely need one for sweets but I guess my temptation would just increase if i could only look at it.. I am sure I would just go to a store and buy something else haha

[danielstockhva]

Innovation

Every day, we as consumers are confronted with innovations in advertisement. Any product Apple puts out is probably, either directly or indirectly, marketed as ‘innovative’ and Google offers 'innovative’ solutions for e-mails, calendar, video, etc. Tumblr is an innovative blogging platform. Or so they claim.

However, by the time a big corporation is trying to sell you a product or service, chances are that product or service is way past its point of innovation already. How high are the chances that the big companies we think of when we hear innovation are actually the root of all of those?

What actually happens, a lot of the time, is that those big companies are looking for innovation somewhere else. It makes sense: They have the resources to help truly good ideas become fit for the mass market and distribute them accordingly. They also have the resources to spend on finding those innovative ideas in the endless sea of inventions and filter out the ones most suitable for their business.

Before Apple came out with their first fingerprint-locked iPhone, they bought the company AuthenTec, which specialises in just that. The leader in video platforms world-wide, YouTube, is part of Google’s portfolio, but started up independently from the internet giant. Yahoo, in a similar fashion, is proud of their blogging platform Tumblr, even though they did not come up with it themselves.

These are just a few examples for the way innovation works its way from a new concept to something that many people get to hear about and enjoy. A good friend of mine has set it as his professional goal to come up with an innovation business idea that he can then sell to a big company. He founds startup after startup, hoping to land a success with one of them. And even though most of his ideas can be classed as innovative, so far, none of them have truly succeeded.

[elicerna]

Thanks Daniel for this article.. Its very informative and I have to admit that I did not know that it works like this before. The story of your friend is interesting, he had a good idea which is not easy to accomplish soo good luck to him i guess

[carlijnoffereins]

Hi-Tech products in the grey market

We know the definition of the blackmarket (illegal trading) and the white market, but what exactly is the grey market? The grey market involves the sale of goods through means other than what was intended or approved by the original manufacturer of a product. This can be done by a private person or a business which purchases the good at retail or a discounted price, and resell it legally at a higher price. This market just exists everywhere, especially for electronics.

However, there are a few disadvantages related to this market. First of all, the grey market drains billions of dollars of revenue from technology businesses worldwide. Besides that, people are not always aware of the risks they are running. When purchasing grey market goods, significantly greater downtime might occur — either due to the failure of products that would not otherwise fail, or longer lead times and expense on repairs.

Despite of the disadvantages for certain parties, grey market trading is an increasingly competitive marketplace. But if we especially focus on the technology sector which continuously brings high-advanced products in the market, grey market trading will probably decrease over time. Nowadays more and more  people want to have the newest Hi-Tech gadgets. And the early birds will buy their newest gadget directly from the manufacturer, in order to be the first one to show it around. so in this case, buying those products via the grey market will cost too much time and effort for people. Furthermore, some manufactures are trying to design their products in a way that consumers are forced to buy the newest version every time. And only via the direct channel (from the manufacturer), consumers are sure that the products include valid warranties and the provided service.  At the end this, coupled with the advances in technology, make the most popular, technological goods difficult to resell.

source: http://www.shippingsolutions.com/blog/gray-marketing-taming-the-beast

[elicerna]

Nice article Caroline :) I like how sou explain what a grey market is at the beginning so those who are not familiar with ot do not have to search what it is but get a brief intro.. To comment on the actual topic of your article, I actually think that the grey market will grow because people will come up with new ways of reselling goods plus there will always be that kind of customers that care more about the price than being cool and having it first.

[shimtrain-blog-blog]

Bad advertisement

So today I am writing about BAD ADVERTISEMENT:

Today I made a big decision, a decision to enter a social discussion that for me enters the new category of blogging that is best described as the ‘news about the news’.

Long story short - Starbucks released a campaign on the 17th on March 2015 that encourages people to talk about racism. Now at face value, this not a bad thing and it really isn’t when you think about it.

But what annoys me is that Starbucks made a calculated decision to pursue this campaign - therefore they believe some beneficial coverage would arise from it. And at the end of the day, you should start a race campaign based on your beliefs not brand image.

Granted - Starbucks have been heavily criticised as a result but their motives are still unethical in my opinion. For that reason I view the #racetogether campaign as bad advertising. An advertisement should reflect a companies mission and purpose. After all if we were to all race together, i’m pretty sure the Jamaicans would just win.

[elicerna]

I competely agree with you. I cannot see any other purpose of doing this than tryiing to promote the brand leading to having more sales. Even though there mighht have been an idea of fighting racism at the beginning of all this, it definitely does not seem to work.

[shimtrain-blog-blog]

In nova tion

Today’s blog will be about NEW PRODUCT INNOVATION:

I am not going to write about a specific product but about innovative culture in general.

What I am taught at university is very different to what my parents experienced. There is a new culture for innovation starting from a grass roots level and it already exists. In the past companies had focus on bureaucratic business models,  productivity and getting the job done. However nowadays we observe Google and Apple brandishing their headquarters specifically geared up to create innovative climates. And the thing is, innovation is sexy, like a new word that found itself in a latin text book, innovation is taking over. The thing that excites me most is that due to such a culture shift I believe my generation will have broader horizons.

So what are the implications for me?

I believe nowadays a higher importance upon displaying creative traits in a job application process is absolutely imperative. Certainly I will try an reinforce my CV with creative bohemianesque aspects.

[elicerna]

Personally, I have to admit that I am a little bit affraid of all the innovations around because it does not have only a positivei mpact on peoples lives. One example could be networking sites which connected the whole world. It mig look as an amazing idea and innovation but contrarily, it actually destroys the true friendship. People are slowly forgeting to talk and type instead. Hanging out with friends means being with them phisically, but talking to others that are not present. It is quite sad. Other example is all those innovations that make our lives easier like cars that park themselves, dishwashers, escalators and all the other products that make us lazy and eventually fat.

[carlijnoffereins]

bilerico.com

The advertisement above is shocking, don’t you think? Why is this woman compared with pieces of meat? Is she seen as a sexual object, or is this done to show a terrible situation the woman is in? For me it was difficult to immediately get the message of this advertisement….

[simonevdn-blog]

These are simply disgusting! The message they’re trying to get across might be important, but I think this is just not the way. Like you said, even children will see these advertisements and that is something you wouldn’t want to happen. Maybe they could’ve made a TV commercial out of it that would only broadcast after 9 in the evening or something like that, but even then I think people would just be disgusted and nothing more than that.

[elicerna]

On one hand I believe that this is a good way how to catch peoples attention and make them think about what they actually eat, however, there is no way to prevent children from seeing them as well which on the other hand is not quite appropriate. To be honest, I cannot really think of a solution to this.

[serenamdania]

Marketing and Me

I was already looking forward to starting the marketing course before it began, as my as this is the sector my mom works it, and the sector many people I have spoken to want focus in. I never thought the day would come where i wanted to be part of this industry, but I think I would like to focus in Marketing in my third year. 

Everywhere I go, and every advertisement I see, I can’t help but relate it back to marketing, and my mind wonders to think what their marketing strategy was. For instance, I was in the supermarket the other day and they had Lays crisps and muffins on Bonus in Albert Hein, and I thought to myself: “great, ill now have two bags of crisps and muffins, for half the price!” I get to the counter to pay, and I payed about 6Euros with a discount of 0.23cents. I was baffled and began laughing while commenting to Arnau about how I was caught in their marketing strategy! I’m not sure the cashier was laughing at or with me, but she was nodding in seeming agreement.

Knowing how marketing plays such a role in all our lives,  and how many of us don’t really pay attention to it since it is SUCH a constant, is so intriguing to me. Many of us don’t even realise when we fall pray to one of there schemes. After this marketing course I can’t help but see marketing stunts, and I try telling myself, “no, im not going to buy it, its just a marketing stunt” or, “I’m not going to fall for it!”. Having this new mind set really helps against spending money, I must say. 

Further, wanting to go into the creative business industry, i figured marketing is just the ally I should go down. Also, the psycholog behind marketing intrigues me. It also enables me to build upon my interest and knowledge of people and their behaviour. I have this idea about marketing that when you know the secrets to human behaviour you’d be able to manipulate their minds through creative marketing to, in theory, buy anything that you make them believe they need. I hope to see if this is really true through continuing to study marketing in the future. 

[elicerna]

Haha nice reaction.. I have a similar experience with Bonuses in Alber Heijn and I actually think its quite unethical to trick people. Creative business industry interests me as well, so hopefully we both get the chance to experience it. I am sure you are creative enough to excel in this field :)

[carlijnoffereins]

Advertising is powerful

If I think of marketing, the first thing what pops up in my mind is advertising. After following marketing classes for several weeks, I sill think advertising is the most powerful tool of marketing. It could be shocking, misleading, mind-changing and inspiring and it reaches everyone!

When watching TV, you are overloaded with commercials. If you’re not watching TV, those commercials will pop up on your computerscreen. When no computer,you’ll hear it on the radio. Never listen to the radio? Then you’ll most likely see the advertisements on billboards on the street and so forth… Well, my point here is that you can’t ignore advertisements. They’re everywhere. For everyone.

Although I have to say I’m quite irritated by all those advertisements, because it’s mainly about making profit, I want to highlight a different kind of advertisements, namely; charitity advertisements. 

The purpose of the ads of charities is different. It has nothing to do with making profits, but it is meant to make people aware of a serious issue. They want to attract attention to their cause and raise money by creating emotive appeals. Research has shown that people are easily touched by seeing emotional advertisement, either positive and negative. And that’s exactly why advertising is so powerful for charities. Because without people’s support and donations, they have no chance of achievement. 

Take for example Greenpeace. I think their advertisements are always very affecting and they certainly have an impact on the watchers. The video below shows a campaign for saving rainforest against Dove. The fact that they have used a little sad girl, makes it even more touching I think. 

source: Youtube

So what do you think about these kinds of advertisments? Do you get annoyed by seeing these, or do you think these are really powerful and of great importance?

source: http://www.theguardian.com/voluntary-sector-network/2013/sep/02/effective-emotive-appeals

[elicerna]

I actually think that these kind of ads are wuite useful because they definitelly catch my attention and make me think about how do all the products that we use everyday affect our planet and that the impact is actually much worse that we all think, however, since we cannot really see it, we do not care as much.

[elicerna]

Wrapped up

This blogpost is going to be the last one, therefore, I would like to write abput what did I learn in these 8 weeks of Marketing class. I have never had a Marketing course before so I didn't really know what to expect or what exactly is it about. To be honest, at the beginning I did not find it very interesting because it seemed like it is all generally-known, however, later on I noticed that I started to look at things differently. Walking in a supermarket or watching a commercial on TV was not the same anymore. I began analyzing and observing ads more in depth and not only perceive them as a waste of time when watching a movie. Running this blog also made me do some research concerning our weekly topics which I am also very glad for. Other part of the course was making a Marketing plan for a real entrepreneur which gave us the oportunity to experience what a real marketer does. Even though it first seemed like it is all obvious, I know now that without discussing all those topics and analyzing advertisements, I would miss out quite some useful knowledge for my future career.

[elicerna]

Born or trained to be a good salesperson?

Being a good salesperson requires excelent communication skills, however, do certain people get born with these skills or do they have to be train in order to acquire them? In my opinion, it all depends on personality. If I think about certain people, I cannot imagine them doing sales because they just do not seem to have that skill to provide good arguements. On the other hand, one can argue that a person can be taugt to do anything with a good training. If I could compare doing sales to doing sports, it is actually quite similar. As a former sportsman, I know that some talented people can win competitions without putting as much effort in trainings, however, those who are not so lucky are still able to impress. The difference is in their training, each one of us needs different approach and we can only succeed if we pick the right one. Not to be forgotten, motivation is the most important aspect of becoming good in sports or doing sales. Without motivation, no goals can be accomplished. Comparing salesperson to a sportman can clarify my point of view on whether someone can be born or has to be train to acquire certain skill. To sum it up, the only difference is in the amount of effort that needs to be put in the training. Overall, everybody needs a training and talent can help to measure the amount of training that one recquires.

[elicerna]

This weeks topic is about bad advertisements and since there are so many, I decided to randomly choose one. Everybody surely knows that some are just over the top, either because it shows something sexual or something violent. Both of these examples should definitely not be published and seen by children who then learn that such behaviour is natural and acceptable. Even though many of such commercials are banned, they are still very easy to find on internet. This particular ad that I found is trying to sell soap by saying that it is the best one to use to wash off blood after a murder. Honestly, this is ridiculously stupid and I cannot even imagine how can someone think that this type of humor is actually funny. It feels like nowadays, people have just no boundaries and what is socially acceptable is considered boring. Marketers are trying to be interesting by shocking people without thinking about the consequences concerning the young generation. Growing up in such environment it is obvious, that violence will soon become much more frequent and youngsters will have no moral principles. The question is: How do we stop this? How do we prevent our children from growing up in this ad-world? I, personally, think that there is actually no way out of this and it actually makes me feel quite intimidated..

[elicerna]

Grey marketing family

To start off, I think it is useful to explain what is this post going to be about? According to a definition, grey market (sometimes called a parallel market,not to be confused with a black market or a grey economy) is the trade of a commodity through distribution channels which are legal but are unofficial, unauthorised, or unintended by the original manufacturer. To put it in my own words and the way I understood it is making profit from the price difference of a product bought in one country and exported to another one. Right after reading the definition, the first thing that came in my mind was my uncle (and maaany other Czechs practising "grey marketing"). Czech republic is quite poor and lagged compared to the western countries, however, Poland is even worse. That is also why many smart Czech people (like my uncle) quicky adopted the idea of importing cheap product from Poland to CZ and selling them for a higher price. Specifically, my uncle's business is all about buying cheap strollers in Poland, importing them, and selling them at a higher price in CZ. One could argue if it is ethical. My personal point of view is that there is nothig unethical on making profit from such kind of business, mainly because people still have the choice to go buy strollers in Poland. Moreover, the price difference is not as huge as with, for example, so many times mentioned iphones, therefore, I think it is actually a good idea. Source: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_market