-Bits & Pieces- Thoughts on Marketing

千里の行も足下に始まる (A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.~ Lao Tzu)

[kiethanvijayabalan]

My last blog topic is about the Marketing and salesmanagement course at the IBS-University of Applied Sciences of Amsterdam, I will reflect my thoughts about this course and hopefully you guys also feel the same about it.

So before this course started , I had a certain idea, an expectancy about...

[mcampman]

Kicchan! ahaha, I guess it’s clear you wrote this post before acing the exam this Tuesday, ey? ;) 

I agree, this was an incredibly diverse course that at times might have been overwhelming. Still, it was definitely an adventure~ see you around as usual next blog Kicchan! no more weird schedules~ :)

[abm9521-deactivated20160424]

This will be my last marketing post, and to finish it well, I want to talk to you about Christian Louboutin’s marketing strategy. First of all, what does Mr. Louboutin offer? Well, you would know him if you would be into the fashion industry, but as I guess that most of you are more...

[mcampman]

Well Arnau, congratulations, you’ve got me interested in fashion, specifically Louboutin’s shoes through your blogpost. You seem quite knowledgable, I guess you’re a fan yourself? I don’t see myself wearing any of his shoes though, I frankly detest heels, but this was an interesting read for sure~ :D

[tenhooryacine]

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...

[mcampman]

Agreed, I personally also believe that the best salespeople have an inherent talent or knack for persuasion and/or an incredible charisma that helps as a foundation for anything that can be learnt through training. 

On another not, if the 10,000 hour theory is correct, I should really be stepping up my game in everything I do 0_0 (not sure about sales though :P ) Sheez, gotta keep at it~

[mayathu]

Sales skills: can it be taught or is it by nature?

This weeks blog is about the skills a salesperson have whether they are given or learned. In general, I think that anything can be learned; for some it just takes longer and for some it comes natural. However, to make your strength or weaknesses to a profession requires determination and dedication. Of course, if you are born as natural salesperson, meaning it comes easy to you to talk to people, understand them and convincing them about the product you want to sell, it is way more convenient to become a salesperson. On the other hand, if you really want to work in sales, nothing can stop you. And most of the times, people turn out to be better at something that weren’t natural to them because that takes more effort and passion to achieve it. People are capable of a lot of things and if you do it with passion, you can only be good at it. No matter how much time you need to get there. It’s about the challenge in life and to proof yourself that you can be whoever you want to be and do whatever you want to do. So to conclude, everything is possible. It’s your own choice how far you get in life and how far you want go to be the best of yourself.

[mcampman]

I really like the message of your post~! Definitely, chasing after that which doesn’t come natural takes a lot of passion and dedication. I’d never argue that anyone who wasn’t born a salesperson shouldn’t become one~ best make sure that dedication is strong though, it’s an unforgiving job, but that shouldn’t stop anyone who loves it~ :)

[ahecking]

Today´s blog post is about bad advertise.

First of all I need to define when an advert is bad. We can speak about a bad advertising when it is not effective. In this case effective means that it is not adequate to accomplish a purpose to produce the intended or expected result. An ad...

[mcampman]

oh dear! I think the worst part is that it took me a while to process what exactly the problem was... I guess gender stereotypes are so deeply engrained that I have trouble identifying them. I’d say that according to your definition, this advert actually performs really well, but like you pointed out, the ethics are debatable. Love the example~

[marshmarketing]

Skittles: "Touch the rainbow"

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vSeJr8rLEy8

This skittles campaign starred a man who could turn anything into Skittles by touching it, he even has colleagues approach him and asks him to turn simple office stationary, such as a stapler into a handful of Skittles, sounds good right?

Until you get to the part of the video where you realize the guy has actually killed every person he has come into contact with!

This dark humor was lost on many audiences and as a result Skittles received a wave of complaints.

Don’t worry these marketers redeemed themselves by using the similar theme of “Touch the rainbow” in a series of online ads. These ads focused your attention on a single Skittle on screen, you were told to put your finger on it, a cat then appears and looks as if it is licking your finger!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wnwEntgHyFI

And of course because cute cats can make even a bad video go viral, the cat advertisement was a success. Moral of the story, cats win the internet.

[mcampman]

Lol? I feel bad for this guy... tough life. Happy you pointed out the cat came in to resolve everything. That made my day~! ;)

[lillypersina]

“The grey market is a market where a product is bought and sold outside of the manufacturer's authorised trading channels. It includes the unofficial trading of a company’s shares, usually before they are issued in an initial public offering (IPO).”

In order to best illustrate an example, lets...

[mcampman]

As there’s only so many countries that can be first in line when a new iPhone is released, I guess the grey market frenzy around them won’t really subside... be it at different countries at different times. Or am I wrong to think that a worldwide simultaneous release will not be happening under Apple’s watch? I guess it’ll all be down to knowing when to be where for those that see opportunities on the grey market, because clearly, the opportunities are still there~

[pfaffiii-blog-blog]

This weeks blog post is about the embodiment of gray markets: Ebay Inc.

When the U.S supreme court decided in 2013 that manufacturers can’t stop imports of their products from other countries it was a huge setback for companies which are producing and selling products abroad.

“Imports of gray...

[mcampman]

Ooh! I like what you’ve done to your layout, much easier to pick out posts now :) As for grey markets, it is quite interesting that so little can be done, be it completely because of their ambiguous nature. Still, I find it hard to believe that no further attempts will be made to halt grey market activities. Let’s see shall we?

[paulineslagermarketing-blog]

Apple has dominated the mobile phone market for years. Starting with the iPhone 1 in 2007, Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone to the world, which was the first music playing, web browsing mobile phone known so far. The touchscreens may now be taken for granted, but back then they still raised...

[mcampman]

Pauline! I’m in denial! I think Apple’s done an astonishing job getting us addicted to their products, but I’m still battling it out because I don’t want to feel that I rely on them too much. (which results in me relying on Samsung) Thanks for a run-through of the iPhone, it has enjoyed quite an intensive but short history, hasn’t it? Crazy...

[mcampman]

As the curtain falls...

Time to wrap it up~!

I feel like I gained a lot of things from attending a Marketing and Sales Management class in uni the past two months.

This includes the awareness of how easily I am influenced, and subsequently how little this newfound insight seems to change anything about that.

When people are good at what they do, be it sales or marketing, they really have the ability to draw you in. I can tell just from thinking back of the three guest lectures I attended the past 2 weeks.

Each of the lecturers was capable of not only marketing and or selling their product, but themselves, above anything. (Heck.. yesterday’s lecturer never even mentioned what her exact background was, nor the name of the company she represented, but by the time she finished talking, we were curious enough to ask her about it in stead. She managed to get us interested in her, even after she went overtime by an hour…. I’d say that’s a job very well done.)

Is marketing something I see myself doing in the future? I’m not quite sure, but it’s a door I plan to keep open for the time being. I ended up enjoying this course a lot more than I’d anticipated. :D

That’s it for now, Happy Easter!

~ Mirjam

[mcampman]

The granted vs. the acquired; Having ‘it’

Yesterday I attended a guest lecture by a sales professional,  who made the note that “You need experience to transform yourself.”

Fair enough, ey? We don't pop out of mums wombs being the exact people we wish to be immediately. Putting yourself in situations that force you to do things you’ve never done before, in turn, allows you to learn things you never knew.

For a volunteer project in Tanzania in 2008, I spent quite some time fundraising, selling little plants and cacti, christmas card and so on. Was I a good salesperson then? Not at all. Did I get better with time?... Let’s just say there wasn’t any room to get any worse, and I was incredibly determined to go to Tanzania. The experience did transform me, be it one measly step at the time.

My commitment to the goal forced me to ‘put up’ with selling. However, it was also an experience that taught me one valuable thing:

If there was ever such a thing as a born salesperson, I was not one of them.

When working with fellow volunteers that were excellent fundraisers, I came up with a number of hypotheses explaining their success; maybe they simply liked it a lot more than I, and knew how to show that? Maybe they had a better idea of what to say...? Was it their tone of voice or accent? Their hairstyle or eyecolor? Turns out, none of these factors could explain the discrepancy in results they brought in for the projects we did. Even asking them, mimicking them, being in the best possible mood, or liking fundraising a dozen times more than them did not tip the scales in my favour... 

Two things became clear to me: -they had ‘it’ 

and 

-the ‘it’ was inherent, it couldn’t be learned. 

I to this day cannot describe the it, but I am convinced that in sales, it can be a deciding factor. In such a highly competitive environment, one could still get by without it.. but judging solely by the amount of commitment and motivation needed to survive in the climate where the masters of ‘it’ have gathered, I wish you the best of luck.

[mcampman]

When bad stays bad.

Annoying commercials, they are virtually everywhere. You might watch TV (which, to the surprise of some of us, is still done regularly by a number of people) and not get that particularly annoying tune out of your head.

I find it funny how its much easier for me to come up with an ad that annoys me than the reverse. The same holds true for a lot of Dutch people, that gladly participate in voting for the most annoying commercial of the year.

source: nos.nl

Meet the Loden Leeuw, or “Lead Lion.” Since 2005, the Dutch TV programme Radar has been handing it out to the commercial that viewers find the most annoying.

Although the reaction to receiving this award differs per winner, most agree that they’ve done their job well, and that most “annoying” is synonym to most “talked-about." 

But is publicity, bad or good, really better than none?

Some research seems to suggest that bad publicity only works if the company has little to lose, because it does not have an established presence anyway. According to the same research, a well-known brand or company, however, might incur heavy losses from an ad campaign.

Still, I couldn’t find clear indications of any company filing for bankruptcy following an unsuccessful or controversial as campaign. (I am interested to know about them, so feel free to comment)

But there are certain ads where bad.... clearly just stays bad. Take for example this commercial by Frisia Financieringen from 2003:

(Whether you’re able to speak Dutch or not, I dare you to watch and remain focused for the entire 45 seconds.)

Felt challenged by that? Yeah, that was long -_-”

[mcampman]

A walk on the gray line

I recently visited my brother and relatives in Japan. This was a great experience, but one that again, almost turned out to be much more expensive than it should have been.

Here’s me and some of the fam in Matsumoto~ almost looks like it’s my birthday~

Of course, after my regular encounters with the Ghibli souvenirs, taiyaki, ramen, maccha latte, sushi, youkan and other amazing Japanese goodies, I was not surprised to see a decline on my bank account balance.

But the real threat to my savings came from a not-so-Japanese product…

Taken from Apple Japan 

Is that an iPhone?

Indeed it is.

Is this going to be another blog post about iPhones?

For the most part… yes. :P bear with me, please~

Unbeknownst to some, Japan is one of the countries that offers the cheapest iPhones; depending on exchange rates, there are times when certain models in the official store even fall below the US price.

I shall spare you the endless stories of how I want an iPhone simply because I am in love with the idea that the calendar on my MacBook wil sync with it, but I think we are familiar with the concept of buying a certain product in a market where it’s considerably cheaper than it would have been in our place of residence. Many a Dutch border-dweller makes a regular trip to the Lidl in Germany for groceries~

So… you could call this a gray market transaction, one that possibly costs Apple some dollars here and there… nothing I would feel too guilty about...

BUT. Problems arise when this is done in massive amounts and through less legal channels… say for example the China case. As it took a while for sellers to be authorised to sell the iPhone 6, smuggling in iPhones and selling them at ridiculous prices (hey, I’m not being biased, I simply think 1000USD is pushing it) became all the rage. This not only hurt Apple’s sales in China, it also increased the risk for its consumers, as buyers of non-authorised products are faced with a lack of warranties and extra services. 

Of course, the biggest countermeasure was Apple finally getting sellers authorised in China, which lead to the “Gray market price plunge” of iPhones there last autumn. (want to read more about that? click here, or make the extra effort to google it ;) )

So.. gray markets can be harmful for consumers as well as companies.. but I wonder if this will stop me from buying that iPhone in the US or Japan next time.. as long as gray markets don’t turn black, this is up for debate.

[mcampman]

Innovate away~

Companies continuously make efforts to be innovative. There’s a number of ways to do so; but if we look at the innovations of the iPhone and Samsung smartphones, we see that although technological improvements are made, they are mostly focused on the tweaking of existing technologies.

driverlayer.com

thedroidguy.com

Coming up with an innovation that opens up a whole new market however, is a different matter entirely.

Consider that there was a time, one that is still remembered by many, in which personal computers did not exist. When they became a catalyst for that which is now known as ‘the internet’ however, their market share became huge, and above all, incredibly profitable.

Examples of more recent innovations that constituted more than an update or improvement of an existing product include hybrid cars, QR codes and 3D printing.

http://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-3d-printing-and-whats-it-for-9456

Some of these ideas and products have proven to bring in the big ones for companies, others will have to rely on marketing efforts to be recognised as revenue pushers. 

In the end, it is a valid point, also alluded to by mariesd, that appearing innovative, might be at least as important as being so, because after all, we buy into perception just as often as we buy into the 'actual' value of our purchases~ let's be innovative shall we? One way or the other...

[cameeremak-blog]

Miljoenen Nederlanders hebben hem aan de sleutelbos hangen: de bonuskaart van Albert Heijn. Wat minder mensen weten, is dat met het nummer van de kaart op de website van de AH met gemak de aankopen van de afgelopen tijd zijn op te vragen; ook…

(My apologies for the article being written in Dutch, but I could not find an English one)

Marketing Researchis it ethical?

Last year, there was a big discussion around the AH bonus card. Word came out that Albert Heijn could track peoples buying behavior by if they used a bonus card. Albert Heijn never communicated this to their customers and the bonus cards needed to be replaced. This is a great example of a business conducting marketing research. Albert Heijn was able to see the items the people purchased, and could use this valuable information in order to develop a marketing strategy. But is collecting and using this information ethical?

Many people did not like the idea of Albert Heijn monitoring their behavior, Albert Heijn got really bad press, and so they decided to make a new bonus card. This new bonus card is anonymous when you receive it. If you want to receive link your bonus card to your air miles card, receive personal advertisements or other benefits, you have to activate this card and fill in information. If you do this, you give your consent to Albert Heijn to use your personal information, like buying behavior for example.

Privacy always is a difficult topic in market research. Some people feel as if their privacy is invaded when a company had access to any sort of personal information. Other people do not care at all if their personal information is used, so how do you distinguish those two people from each other as a company? By giving them the choice! In order for the customers to make their choice, the businesses will have to inform them about the market research and the use of personal information. After this the customers can decide for themselves if they are against being monitored or not. The company can then give some benefits in return for the permission given by the customers. This is exactly what Albert Heijn did.

I believe that there is nothing wrong by tracking people and using this as information in order to develop a marketing strategy, as long as the people who are being tracked are aware of this and have given the business permission to use this information. If this is done correctly, then I believe that marketing research is ethical!

[mcampman]

Good old Appie, making things more complicated than they need to be sometimes. ;) I agree with your conclusion, the fact that customers can decide to participate in the bonus programme is great, although the value of the Bonus card system itself is a bit iffy. As a cashier (and as you yourself know very well too), tons of customers receive the same basic benefits without ever having to acquire a bonus card. 

Getting back to your original point, the acquisition of information is in itself not unethical, but it is good if boundaries are set and known ~ 

[michellekrevetzky-deactivated20]

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 happy? If welook at the numerous commercials everywhere around us that we have to faceevery day,...

[mcampman]

What an appealing post Michelle!

You do well in pointing out how wherever we go, wherever we look, we'll find examples of companies on the hunt, on their hunt for us, that is.

They know us better than we do sometimes, a frustrating fact, but I guess they're not spending all that money researching us for nothing~ :)

[resweermeijermarketing]

Golden Redbull..?

[egiotee-blog]

Nice post, Robin! Very informative and broad. I really did not know Redbull adapts their package for different countries, and the golden Chinese version looks indeed unusual. I think if I went there and looked for Redbull (which is not really likely), I would buy it just to try if it maybe even tastes different. So curious. 

[mcampman]

Ahahaha! I'm not a fan of energy drinks, certainly not Red Bull, but you're right, had I seen this in China, I might not have registered that it was the same product. This is a very good example of global marketing, since Red Bull is a brand that we are familiar with, or at least the packaging. Something about a golden Red Bull just doesn't feels off, although I must say, I might have considered drinking this had I NOT known it was the same thing~ ;)