Pop Star Advertising

Pepsi Advertising
The above link connects to a great article on how Pepsi is re-vamping their old advertising strategy of using pop stars in their advertisements.  With so many other drinks on the market competing against soda companies Pepsi is trying to appeal to generation X.   

Religious Advertising

ff
Religion advertising is usually pretty serious, but finding this advertisement it made me realize that churches are starting to use humor to attract the type of customers that they want.  This is a great way to attract people who are turned off by your typical religious advertisements.  

Consumption

Great video from a great series called "The Story of Stuff". 

Pieces of April

Pieces of April was a slow moving tale about a girl who is slightly detached from her family, and invited them to Thanksgiving.  While making the dinner nothing goes right for her, and her family almost does not come into her house for dinner.  It does a great job of showing the stresses that people have over the holidays and the expectations that they put on themselves.  At the end it shows how everyone who helped her became her family for dinner, and through  her struggles she gained new friends.  She was also able to start fresh with  her family.  Lots of hidden consumer behavior messages in this movie, but was a slow movie to watch.   

Brand Loyalty

This is a great commercial about brand loyalty with Jerry Seinfeld.  Jerry is so loyal to the car brand that he attempts to bribe the first buyer for his place in line for the car.  Being the first one to buy this car is extremely important to Jerry.  This commercial uses this to attempt to show that their brand has followers that will do anything for the brand. 

Extreme Couponing

Perhaps on of the most extreme types of consumer behavior is extreme couponing.  If you can make it through a whole episode I worry about you.  So much money spent unnecessarily.     

Black Friday

Now that over a week has passed it is interesting to look at the numbers from Black Friday.  With stores starting their sales on thursday evening instead of friday morning sales rose, and more people shopped.  It is surprising to me that so many people will leave their friends, family and loved ones on a day of giving thanks to go shopping.  It also shows that consumers are getting more and more interested in great deals.  http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Latest-News-Wires/2012/1126/Black-Friday-record-Weekend-sales-up-13-percent

Changing Trends

This video relates well to my last post.  My father works for a very large Market REsearch company based out of St. Louis and they are currently struggling because of the quickly changing way that research about consumers is done.  New research companies are starting everyday that are more up to date with the quickly changing technology.  Long time clients are leaving because the company appears out of date.  Great thing to remember while in  school is that things may be completely different once we graduate, and that to stay competitive you can never stop learning and adapting. 

Future of Digital Marketing

If you have time to sit through this 7 minute video it is a very interesting look into the future of digital marketing and the reach that is growing at an extremely high rate.  Especially in the mobile department.  Interesting to see how our behaviors are being strongly affected by the internet and its simplicity and convenience.  By 2015 the internet traffic generated by 20 homes will be equal to the traffic generated by worldwide traffic in 1995.  

Thanksgiving

After the talk in class last week about thanksgiving and the reading I had a thought.  How is it that we spend a whole day/evening giving thanks for everything that we have.  On thanksgiving we are thankful for the food on the table, for the company at the table, for everything that we own.  Less than 8 hours after giving thanks, we have one of the biggest shopping days of the year.  People get trampled to death to consume the best deals in the store.  The way that consumers behavior changes from one day to the next is and can be very drastic. 

Rites of Passage

Marines Commercial

Rites of Passages have been around forever.  In the commercial above the Marines use a very corny replication of what I consider to be a "Lord of the Rings" rip off boot camp.  With the slogan "The Few, The Proud, The Marines" they make themselves out to be an elite group.  Boot Camp is their rite of passage and therefore must be very difficult to get through.   

Gift Giving

With Christmas just around the corner we are about to start to be bombarded with Christmas ads.  What most of these ads will be based on is exactly what we just spent time in  class talking about.  Gift Giving.  One of the biggest stresses that people have with holiday gift giving is the amount of time that goes into getting gifts for everyone.  The following commercial by Garmin highlights the fact that they make a gift for every type of person, making shopping easier and faster for the consumer.  Consumers usually think of GPS when they think of Garmin, so this commercial also gets rid of that perception by showing the wider range of products within the brand.

Click for commercial:   Garmin Christmas Commercial

Thought this was an interesting way to market a yes vote.  Put all your energy into something that people feel strong about.  The way that these people used reverse psychology to sell people on an idea is brilliant.  

Here is a prime example of a product that didn't make it onto the shelves.  I don't understand how this new shoe from Adidas made it to the promotional stage in the first place.  ADIDAS pulls shoe from distribution

SNow Marketing

Saw this interesting read on ESPN on ski area marketing.  With such a tough winter for all the ski areas in the US thought it was an interesting read. 
http://espn.go.com/action/freeskiing/story/_/id/8043993/interview-jackson-hole-chip-carey

Patagonia

Patagonia and EnvironmentI have always admired Patagonia and their commitment to the environment, and how they use this as a marketing tool.  Their first ad campaign of "Dont buy this Jacket" caught my attention right away.  It went on to tell about the carbon footprint that buying one jacket leaves, and that if you already have a jacket that works, you dont need to buy a new one.  Its nice to see a company telling consumers that they dont need to buy more than they need.  Its great to see that this message has led to increased sales.

Sliced Bread

I often find myself watching TED videos in my spare time, as it is full of interesting ideas on how to do presentations as well as valuable information.  Seth Godin does a good job explaning how important it is to market towards the outsides of a curve, as they are the ones who want to listen, not the majority in the center of a curve.  Good watch if you have 20 minutes. 

While searching around youtube for a blog entry today i came across this old bit from Bill Hicks.  Always been  a fan of his comedy and this had me laughing really hard.  especially when he talks about the marketers taking his anti-marketing rant as marketing in itself.  Warning:  language is a bit off-color.  Bill Hicks on Marketing

Energy Drinks

In the last 5 years convenience store coolers have gone from having  one or two types of energy drink to having at least a full cooler of different products.  I often times find myself thinking of how brilliant some of these companies are at marketing their product.  This winter i saw a snowboarder in the lift line with 4 different energy drink brands stickers on his helmet.  Obviously, said kid thought that these were cool brands to associate yourself with.  (well done marketers)   The best of these brands are obviously Red Bull and Monster.  (not best drink, but at marketing)  Suddenly it is not uncommon to see trucks with monster stickers on them, or monster clothing.  The ability for Monster to be able to turn  their brand into somewhat of a lifestyle is very impressive.  I wonder if people wearing these clothes and putting up these stickers realize that most of the action sports professionals promoting the brand don't even drink it.  On the other end though, the success of these brands has helped shape other brands, such as DrinkWater, created by a group of professional snowboarders who realized how influenced kids were by other professional athletes endorsing the energy drink brands.  They realized that they to had influence, but had turned down offers from energy drink brands.  So they started a brand that does nothing but remind people to drink water.  And it is catching on. 
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/sports/pro-water-in-snowboarding-culture-heavy-on-energy-drinks.html 

didnt have an answer

I recently started a new job.  After years of working as a cook, i finally landed a job related to my studies.  I am doing Sales and Marketing for Lone Peak Brewery in Big Sky, MT.  I just did my first sales trip to Billings on Tuesday and while riding around with the distributor he asked me what my marketing plan was.  I did not have an answer.  I am  hoping to put this plan  together in the next month, but i am looking forward to this class to help me answer that question the next time it is asked.