Marketing Mindset

Lately I have found myself questioning every ad and every commercial while watching television. “But why am I doing this?” is the question I always find myself asking every time I notice myself doing this. I believe the answer is awareness.

What I mean by awareness is that I am slowly being trained by my teachers to think like a marketer/advertiser. I suppose that is their job, and I guess they’re doing their job well. I will find myself sitting on the couch watching television, but when the commercials come on, I feel the need to watch, unlike when I was a kid. I find myself enjoying analysing commercials for different appeal techniques such as lifestyle, humour, comparative, innovation, and product differentiation. I began to notice this action a couple of weeks ago, and I had a startling realization that, I might be becoming a marketer/advertiser.

As I wrote this blog I thought to myself, could it be? Could I really be changing and becoming a marketer/advertiser. My teachers always said in order to be a good marketer/advertiser you have to change how you look at commercials and people and start to think like a marketer/advertiser. If there is one thing I learned from writing this blog is that it’s working.


The easiest commercials to explain what I am trying to say are car commercials because most of them use every appeal technique possible to make their product most desirable

This is a typical car comercial that you may see on t.v. all the time. The appeal techniques used in this are product differentiation, comparitive, and innovation. This is a positive factual based comercial.

This is a volkswagen car comercial, this was also aired on t.v. and was very successful. The appeal technique used in this was humour. This is a positive comercial with no acts.

Generation X and no not the 1990s T.V. Show

Generation X is a period of time between 1965-1975, just after the end of the baby boomer period. Generation X is the off spring of the first baby boomers. Generation X is “perhaps the most overlooked generation, falling in the shadow of the powerful baby-boom generation” (Wilson, 2009, para. 6).

I am generation Y, but generation X is very different then me, but not just by time either. Generation X has a high education level and is highly aware of economic problems and due to this “like to save money” (Wilson, 2009, para. 6).

Generation X is the least marketed generation. This generation is very technologically savvy, and they like to save their money. This generation lives and breathes facts; you will not sell them a product without telling them all the facts. Their generation mostly has a very rational buying habit and is traditionally not brand loyal. They want to know what your product is and why it is a good value for them. Generation X is a very flexible generation (Bachler, 2008).

Out of all the generations, generation X is the most racially, ethnically, and culturally diverse than previous generations (Bachler, 2008). The challenge this poses is that marketers have to come up with new products and ways to market to the ethnical and culturally diverse population. As for me I’m generation Y and I don’t like to save money and as for marketing preference I love witty and imaginative outside of the box advertisement.

A chunk of this blog was part of a report I did for my media and cultures class and I thought why do I need to know this and how is this relevant to me. After thinking about it I realized that it is important because if I become a marketer this generation plus my own will be my target market. The report that I did taught me how to break down a target market and learn their needs and wants.





With the right knowledge and marketing strategies, the world’s wallet is in your hand.

These are some websites I looked at.

Bachler, C. (2009). How to Market to Gen X and Gen Y. Home Business Magazine.
http://www.homebusinessmag.com/marketing/how-guides/how-market-gen-x-and-gen-y

Wilson, E. (2009). Know Your Target Market. Entrepreneur Media, Inc.
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/202334

Gotta Catch Em All... Niche Marketing

In my media and culture class I did a presentation on magazines and their niche marketing strategies. A niche market is when you target a segment of a general population and specifically market to their needs and wants.

Magazines are good at marketing their products by using niche marketing strategies. For example if you like sports then magazine companies like sports illustrated would most likely target you.

The methods that are used by magazine companies to market the magazine is as follows; first, they must choose their niche market i.e. age and gender demographics and even psychographics, this can be based on the magazine itself. If, for example, it is a sports magazine you most likely are marketing to males with a wide spectrum of age. Secondly, you must choose your marketing strategy method (how you get the word out on your product).

There are 3 major methods to market your product. The shotgun method is aimed to hit lots of people and is typically expensive, to advertise for this would be a bulletin board. Profile matching is a method that tries to determine what a particular group wants by doing research on them then specifically target them.

Riffle method is another way to get your product known. This method targets people based on their interest and habits. This method has pin point accuracy at targeting their product to a specific group. The strategy most commonly used by magazine company is riffle strategy; it is arguable that they use profile matching as well.

 

The reason why magazine companies market to a certain group is because nobody is equal. Your needs are different than others. Now understanding this, marketers have successfully marketed their magazines to millions of people and magazines are one of the major methods of advertising.






This is a youtube video that explains what is happening to magaines now and their projections into the future.

My Silhouette... is Fine Thank You

False advertising, does it happen or are we as consumers blind to it or unwilling to step up and say something? There are lots of companies that lie to us about their products and get away with it. Most consumers are unaware of how much power we have and how we can use this power to make marketing a more level playing field.

False advertising does happen all the time but mostly we don’t notice it. In the case of Nivea and their product called My Silhouette the company stated in their commercial that by using this product you will lose weight. All that you had to do was rub the cream on your body and watch the fat rub away. Nivea is a company known for rejuvenating skin creams but a cream that removes fat like liposuction? To me this appeared to be a load of nonsense but millions of woman bought into this add.   

Nivea had to pay 900,000 dollars for their false or misleading advertisements. Nivea was also told by the courts that they must post a public apology in the news paper. Immediately after this trial Nivea recalled every My Silhouette off the shelves and out of the stores in Canada.

Most companies follow the rules of marketing and advertising law to an extent. By this I mean they are not breaking any laws but they are stretching the truth. As consumers we need to stand up and raise questions when we think a company is misleading us and stop them.


This is the commercial done by Nivea. This commercial shows how to use the product and what it will do for you.

 






These are a few websites I looked at:
http://www.en.nivea.ca/ext/en-fr-CA/Press-Release-My-Silhouette
http://www.cjad.com/CJADLocalNews/entry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10261712
http://nomoredirtylooks.com/tag/lawsuit/