Future Managers

 

This Ads of Intel microprocessor used to trigger serious controversy. In the middle of this print advertisement, a white man dressing like a boss stands in an office. In front of him, there is a starting line. 6 black people dressing like race athletes are crouching to start running. The message on the top of this advertisement is “multiply computing performance and maximize the power of your employees”. After this print ad released, a lot of audiences criticized that this ad could be easily understood as black people being “enslaved” by white people. The picture shows that black athletes are prostrating in front of white “boss”, which gives audiences psychological hint. Criticism were getting so serious that Intel had to release an statement on their website. In the statement, Intel said they had made a very serious mistake and what they supposed to convey was to emphasize the brilliant performance of their microprocessor by using specific characters. However, unfortunately they used black athletes in the ads. Instead of conveying the message, they triggered an issue of racial discrimination.

 

The brand image of Intel faced big challenge because of their carelessness. In my mind, there is a main reason for the failure of this ad. In this ad, the mass audiences might connect in mind the historical “racial discrimination” through the message and picture. It`s unexpected for ad creators and management of Intel. However, the understandings of mass audiences are different from theirs. That`s the principal contradiction of this incident.

 

Basically, the creative of this ad is good. As long as they try to avoid the negative association of mass audiences, this ad could successfully convey the message they supposed to say. If they replace the black athletes by white athletes, the ad would be safe to show in front of mass audiences.

 

Ad Source:http://cache.gizmodo.com/assets/images/4/2012/01/d3669694db504b494c6e303c35ed16ae.jpg

 

Blog 5

In this commercial, you can see a kid wearing a punk hair saying that he is ashamed of being called as one of the “Geek Family” because his parents drive a not-so-cool minivan. And then the picture and music suddenly changed when Toyota Highlander high-end automobile shows up. The kid sneaked into the car and introduces its optional Bluetooth streaming audio and so forth functions. At the end, the kid said “just because you are a parent, it doesn’t mean you have to be lame.”

This commercial, with a series of other similar ones, formed a marketing campaign by Toyota in 2010 especially aimed at children in family. It raised a lot of controversy in terms of rendering negative influences on children by inculcating materialism and unhealthy psychology of comparing social or economic status with peers. The negative messages it brought can be discussed as follows:

1.       The commercials created a new need instead of an existing one fulfilling it. It told audience that buying this car is face-earning investment while owning a small van is losing-face. You may not need this automobile before, but it implied that you need it to avoid being”lame”.

2.       The commercials seduced people to purchase their Highlander automobiles by suggesting that high-end automobiles indicate social status and make you stand out from your peers. It compared the “Geek Family” with “classic” one to demonstrate that material possessions are symbols of status. From the perspective of children, they may ask their parents to buy these high-end cars without considering the actual purchasing ability of their families.

3.       Using kids as the main focus of the commercial pissed consumers off. Children have a relatively immature thinking of things that they are exposed to. And they are easy to be misled. This commercial has the potential to form a habit of comparing material things with peers instead of intellectual and spiritual concerns, which may affects children’s growing in a negative e for Toyota.

Actually, I think Toyota hopes to achieve below three objects to attract more consumers.

1.         Riley Thomas Stewart is a famous actor. He has own group of fans who always pay attention on his actions. So Toyota hopes to utilize fame and influence of Riley Thomas Stewart to get more potential customers.

2.         Riley Thomas Stewart also is a child. With the development of society, children’s view can strongly affect their parents to make decisions, direction and price of purchase. So Toyota makes Riley Thomas Stewart to tell other children why his family chooses “Highlander”, because it is easy to build connection between children and Riley Thomas Stewart would delivery massage that “Highlander” will make your family to be “Not Geek” to other children who would influence purchasing decision of family.

3.         The advertisement shows that “Highlander” has high-quality Stereo Equipment, luxury interior decoration and perfect design. It would make more people who want to pursue luxury and high grade SUV to pay more attention and buy “Highlander”.

Definitely, the advertisement can promote some people who are fans of Riley Thomas Stewart to focus on “Highlander”. But, because it raised a lot of controversy in terms of rendering negative influences on children by inculcating materialism and unhealthy psychology of comparing social or economic status with peers, more people cannot accept the advertised approach so that it would take more negative effects for Toyota. Based on feedback from audiences of the Highlander’s commercial advertisement on YouTube website, there are 1,710 (Source1) people who don’t like the advertisement, and it only have 62 (Source1) people to support the commercial of Toyota.

(Sourse:1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80pNUxIczig&feature=player_embedded

2  http://moneyland.time.com/2010/11/05/if-your-kid-really-wants-a-toyota-highlander-tell-him-to-get-a-job/

3 http://frugaldad.com/2010/11/05/new-toyota-commercial-reinforces-materialism/

4 Related video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6od7l7WXi0&feature=related)

1. From culture to product ( McDonalds’ Ramadhan Campaign )

Commercial address: http://www.bestadsontv.com/ad/35372/McDonalds-Wrapper

This McDonald’s wrapped integrated marketing campaign won the Gold Clio Awards in 2011.This is what they did in Indonesia, 2011, when they actually won a prize for they amazing campaign.

Background: 

This campaign was really popular and successful at that time. The commercial was in a period of the month of Ramadhan, during which Muslim will all have to fast. From this cultural stand point, every restaurant has to cover their windows from dusk to dawn to avoid alluring people to break traditions. McDonalds was in a very embarrassing situation then, which they needed to promote their ramadhan offers and not bring too much trouble for the company in terms of violating cultural rules at the same time.

 

What they did: 

They came up with an excellent idea to wrap everything up, not just their windows, and to use it to create a brand new advertising campaign.

“So we covered our campaign.” That’s what they concluded.

 

They put everything wrapped in paper including their logo, instead of showing people the actual image of the meat, veggie and bread. They released a new version of every commercial with wrapping on them. Two separate translate designs was created so Muslims who are about to break fast was not tempted. And they also changed the display of the product in their stores during the fasting hours.

Why they won: 

1. Showing understanding and respect to the culture. 

McDonalds does not gain its global success for nothing. This advertising campaign respected the fasting culture of Muslims by wrapping food and its logo in paper. It promoted its ramadhan offers in a way that is not too hard, which would not make itself a too alluring product to the Muslims. All these together showed the image of McDonalds as a really caring, considerate and clever brand. That is really a great PR promotion indeed.

 

2. The ability to think out of the box. 

The creativity of this integrated marketing campaign is amazing. While every competitor covered their store’s windows, they covered their products and logo and still selling it.

 

3. Conveying the message in a mild and acceptable way. 

People know about the food in McDonalds’, and they love it, but they just cannot eat during the fasting. The company kept running their interesting commercials and changed the display design in store to accompany Muslims through this period. And they came up with the translite functions as a signal that it is time to break fast to those waiting in the restaurant to breakfast. But not attempting.

 

Besides the audio ad we discussed above, another example of creativity comes from a magazine commercial. Though there are many methods of demonstrating products today, commercials on magazine may be traditional, but not out of fashion anyway 

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2. Haagen-Dazs’s Five

 Commercial’s address: http://www.magazine.org/ADVERTISING/KELLY_AWARDS/2010-haagen-dazs-inspiration-video.aspx

Background:

Kelly Awards are a Supreme Honor of magazine advertisements, which is bestow every year by the Association of Magazine Media. In the year 2010, the Kelly Awards Grand Prize winner is Haagen- Dazs Five campaign, made by agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners’s.

 

What they did?

In this campaign, Haagen- Dazs use 5 pictures to show on a half page in magazine. These 5 pictures include five healthy origin ingredients of Haagen Dazs ice-cream, there are egg, milk, sugar, cream and mint. All the ingredients are showed with a blank background.

 

Why they won?

These pictures give us a strong sense of healthy and pure. As we know, people become more and more care about healthy and quality of food, and most of people are thinking that ice-cream will make them fat and unhealthy, which is the main point that Haagen- Dazs wants to clarification. We know that the customers of Haagen- Dazs are at all ages, from child to olds, and most of them care about their healthy and body. So Haagen- Dazs wants to tell customers that all the ingredients they use are healthy and nourishing such as egg and milk, which provide daily protein for people, without any food additives. And also Haagen- Dazs has been known as low-fat ice-cream. This campaign perfectly aimed at these points which customers really concentrate about and very helpful for the sales. And all of these concepts are expressed by its visual impact, instead of any words. When seeing this commercial in the Magazines, customers can easily get the impression that this product, is as natural as all its ingredients, as pure as the white background posters it be demonstrated on.

Moreover, it is a good marketing strategy. This campaign uses the simplest pictures to show the information that makes customers be clear at a glance, which is creative and effective, especially for printed commercials.. They use the pure color to makes customers feel that Haagen- Dazs is a luxurious, and natural product.

Besides, Haagen- Dazs also launch an inspiration video, which shows a little girl throws all other things for only leave five things on the table, which are the ingredients of Haagen Dazs. It makes people think the product attracts children’s attention much.

During this Super Bowl, Pepsi issued a very impressive TV commercial, King`s court. No matter from which perspective, such as creativity, messages, the gorgeous scenes and celebrity endorsement, this commercial is an excellent works.

 

This is the commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rZs8ZKTsp0

1.The Brief synopsis of the commercial:

Story and scene

It is a story happened in the King’s court. People will be immediately attracted by it because they want to know what happened in this story. People in this commercial are well dressed. All the scenes are so brilliant. The basic color in this palace is blue which is the mainly color of Pepsi.

Super star

Melanie Amaro and Elton John are the actors in this commercial. Elton John is a rigorous king. He made all the people act for him. If their performance can’t make Elton happy, they will be punished and fall into a trap. Melanie is an actress who acts a super singer in this court. This is exactly the same in the real world. She use her song surprise all the people and beat the king at last. This gave us big impression. The effect of the super stars is prefect. Everyone who watches the commercial will notice the superstar and the song which Melanie sang in the court.  This is a good promotion. Their full of energy and positive celebrity give Pepsi a good influence and company image.

 2. What emotions are you feeling as a result of the commercial

We felt happy, inspired and encouraged. Especially when the King was put into the jail, we felt everyone in that palace got free.

 3.Who is the target market?

Drinks for the youth

Pepsi always hold the strategy that focuses on the young group customers. This commercial has the super stars that are well known by the youth. The story is attractive to the youth too.

This is a promotion exactly focusing on the target customers.

 4.What messages is the company trying to get across to the viewers?

Besides the super star effect and Pepsi for young people, they also sent some other messages as following.

“Pepsi for all”

Melanie said this slogan at the end of this commercial. This is a short but powerful sentence easy to remember and spread. The promotion here can be considered as viral marketing. You can imagine after people saw this commercial, whenever they hesitate to choose what to drink in restaurants or supermarkets, they would remember this slogan and make decisions very fast. Definitely people would remember this sentence and spread it quickly. This commercial will be successful.

Where there’s Pepsi, there’s music.

Another idea which is very great is that Pepsi tries to connect its product with “music”. People who love music will think that the most suitable drink when they listen to music is Pepsi. This is also a viral marketing or an idea inception. It is really a great promotion.

As a result, we consider that the promotion if this commercial is very good. They connect the idea youth, blue, music, super star and other clues with this commercial.

 

Our team built on Jan 18th. Five people got together and shared our experiences on the first class. And we also have a new people joined us in the second week. We will go on team working for next few months. Hope it a nice trip!

Why not introduce ourselves first?

Hello guys, I am Andrew. I am really glad to join this team to finish all assignments of MKT567. I am new graduate in this spring. In past five years, I worked in accounting and financial field as senior auditor and financial manager. So I don’t have some experiences of marketing. I really hope to learn more knowledge in this field. Wish we have nice time together.

I am Richard (Ruicheng Xu). I attend MKT 500 last semester. It is so interesting to have a deeper study on marketing in MKT567. Our team is well organized and very efficient. I really love it.

Hi, I’m Sherry (Shiyun Feng), a huge fan of Mad Men, WOW! It’s great to be with you guys in MKT567, I’m sure we will pump up with many interesting ideas together. Let’s make our Tumblr rock, and ace this course together, hooray!

Hello guys, my name is Yongqiang Miao, you could call me Peter for short and easy. I used to do marketing stuffs for one year in a FMCG company. Promotion and advertising are my favorite parts in marketing field. It would be much fun in MKT567, hopefully I could improve myself with all of you and be a cool marketer eventually.

Hi guys, my name is Erin Wu, and my chinese name is Beilin Wu. To be honest, Integrated Marketing Communication is one of my biggest reasons that I chose my major, which is MSMTI. Hence, I cant explain how excited I am to start my marketing journey here. Let’s make it happen!

Hi guys, my name is Ting Wang. And I am the late one. My major is MSODL, and my bachelor major is Mathematics, so I have no idea about the Marketing at all. Since I took the MKT567 class, I found it is really interesting to learn and it may be a wonderful experience to work with my guys.

In the future, we will share our experience on the class here in our blog. Every two weeks there will be an assignment.

Our perspective—-Promotion

Personal selling; Promotion; Public relations/publicity;B2B advertising; Interactive media are the five choices for us in the future. At last, we choose Promotion as our mainly perspective.

Why are we interested in promotion?

From the peddling vendors in ancient bazzars in Rome, to the dazzling electronic billboards on Time Square, wherever there is a market, wherever there is a product within the businessmen’s hands, the ultimate goal of marketing has always been: to sell.
No matter how variously have tools of marketing been developed, no matter how many innovations could be applied in marketing process, promotion has long been the most straight-forward and most goal-oriented tool to boost selling. Promotion is the art of attracting and persuading customers to buy your product, willingly and contentedly. It conforms to the ultimate goal of doing business: selling, and serve this goal sheerly.

Basing on the reason above, our group chooses the topic of promotion, and is ready to focus on this particular topic through this semester.

Privacy Policy:

We may use the information connected with the MKT 567. The reference may be complicated. We will address each one if it is necessary. All original works we`ll reserve the copyright. If you need to use anything of our original works please send request email to us.

Contact us:

Andrew (Zhe Cui): zcui@wpi.edu

Richard (Ruicheng Xu): rxu@wpi.edu

Sherry (Shiyun Feng): sfeng@wpi.edu

Peter (Yongqiang Miao): ymiao@wpi.edu

 Erin (Beilin Wu): bwu@wpi.edu

Ting (Ting Wang): twang2@wpi.edu