DARTH VADER KID


This commercial has been one of the most view Superbowl commercials of all time with nearly 58 million hits on youtube and right after it aired Twitter was blowing up about it. although it has been wildely popular because of the cute kid running around trying to reenact Star Wars, does it do a good job of actually promoting the product? I would have to say no. This commerical does a fantastic job of gaining the attention of the viewer because just about everyone knows who Darth Vader is, and how could you not watch a kid going around the house trying to use the force?

The actually product they are trying to sell you is a new car from Volkswagon, but you don't find that out until the very last second of the commercial. They do an incredibly poor job showing the product and everything that is included. from what the commercial shows us the only thing that it can do is remote start, they don't show you the inside or of the safety features which seems a little odd seeing as though their target market is families. Im not even sure what their marketing objective was here. After watching the commercial for the first time and thinking about it i couldnt even remember what product they were trying to sell all i could think of was the kid in the Darth Vader costume

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R55e-uHQna0

Space-saving idea

Resource Furniture is an exclusive importer and distribuitor in US of Clei manufacturer, an Italian industry that produces modern space-saving furniture. The main idea is to provide for all ages, a modern, modular and customized furniture. Their space-saving living and young systems includes more than 40 models of wall beds, bunk beds, freestanding sofa/wall-bed systems, closet/storage systems and work space solutions.

The company is located in big cities where realty is very expensive considering space. As an example, Resource Furniture has a big show room located in Manhanttan, NY, it is a target marketing strategy, because they consider people who wants to live in this area will not spend too much money renting or buying huges houses/apartments. Resource Furniture sees these people as prospects buyers for their products. The same strategy is used in Los Angeles, Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Calgary, Mexico City and Hong Kong.

The company has a website and a blog where other prospects, seeking for space solutions, can see the products they offer and also reach them through social media as Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Houzz and Youtube.

Resource Furniture has definitely a most innovative idea of space-saving and their objective is pretty simple to bring solutions for those who really want to save money and redefine the way consumers think about space far into the future.

It's Not Just About Any Color, It's About Yours!!

iPhone has its own people and target market who love all the features that are provided. iPhone 5s and 5c have almost the same features, but the idea that iPhone 5c have a soft and colorful case, which gives it a special and abnormal feature, and it is something different and new. Having colorful cases, so people can have variety of colors each time is not the reason that attracts people to the iPhone 5c. The idea is having your phone in the color that you want, and the colorful cases are just accessories that any other kinds of phones can have. Also, iPhone 5c has many updates that are not in the iPhone5, and most people think that it’s cheap because of the plastic cover, but that’s not true because it really feels so good in hands.

At the beginning, when I was doing a research about the new coming iPhones, I thought that the 5c is just for teenagers. Then, when I got the 5c as a gift, I started to look online to see what will come out about it. I watched this advertisement, and after that I changed my opinion! And this is  part of Apple's marketing strategy. Because what apple's cares about is customers satisfaction.

It is obvious form the ad that they are not only targeting at specific people; they are doing a mass marketing because all people no matter how old they are or what their careers are, iPhone 5c will still fit them. It’s about the softness of the case and your favorite color as well. iPhone 5c is still an iPhone with all the excellent features that the other iPhones have, just this is in your best color.
 

NASCAR Brands and Sponsors

   Since NASCAR was founded 65 years ago, sponsors have been putting their brands and marketing promotions on the doors, hoods, roofs, and just about anywhere else on every race car on the track. Sponsors learned early on in NASCAR (and other forms of motorsports) that by putting their brands and logos on the cars they brought brand recognition to the fans in the stands and the millions of viewers at home watching on T.V. Just as it was in 1948, it still rings true today, the fans will develop a brand loyalty for the brands on the car of their favorite driver.
   Thirty years ago I became a fan of Dale Earnhardt Sr. when he moved up to the Winston Cup Series, now the present day, Sprint Cup Series. Back then, Dale Sr. had Wrangler Jeans as his primary sponsor, and they stayed with him even when he moved to Richard Childress Racing and Goodwrench became his primary sponsor. Wrangler became an associate sponsor and a primary sponsor of Dale Earnhardt Inc. with which he fielded Grand National, now Nationwide series cars and his own cars in Sprint Cup for his son Dale Jr. and Steve Park. In Dale's early career his car was blue and yellow with the Wrangler logo prominently displayed. Because of this I became brand insistent with Wrangler jeans and have worn them ever since. I find them much more comfortable than Levis and this fact is born out today in their commercials featuring Dale Jr. and other sports stars. Wranglers are cut in U shape which makes them more comfortable to wear than those jeans cut in V shape.

   Today the NASCAR fan base is over 40% women and advertising managers and their marketing mixes are targeting this segment of the market. Over the years many products, from beer to laundry detergent have been sponsors for NASCAR teams and this has helped to promote brand loyalty among the female fan base of NASCAR. So much so, that specific driver paraphernalia is marketed directly towards the female fan base.
   As the economy improves more companies will find that one of the best bang's for their marketing buck will be in NASCAR and the brand loyalty that will be garnered by sponsoring a car on the track.

Kikkoman- soy sause- Perfection-Seasoning

I choose this video for a few reasons, I am working toward a career in Culinary Arts, so naturally this commercial caught my eye, because it is associated with food. Second, this commercial was very visually appealing and really caught my eye. The flow of this commercial was extremely smooth, it took simply soy sauce and made it really appealing by showing all the different, unexpected things created with soy sauce. It made it seem glorified, rather then the thought of just a small packet it sauce you get with your carry-out Chinese food.  The target market is not only chefs, and restaurateurs, the two hands that the commercial showed could have been that of a chef, or someone at a restaurant, but I took it as a family, serving up dinner. This commercial also at the end show the viewer that Kikkoman has been around and recognized for 300 years with shows brand recognition. It draws in the viewer visual appeal, it gets the viewer to believe that this soy sauce is a need, look at how beautiful and yummy your food will be if you use Kikkoman. Like I mentioned before, that isn't just one target market for this product. This commercial also is using mass selling, communicating to large numbers of potential customers at the same time. Overall, I think that Kikkoman did a nice job drawing you into this commercial with visual appeal, fresh, clean, clear,endless options. They really changed my attitude toward their product. I don't only have to use soy sauce for Chinese, or foreign foods. It opened the door to new options for the product which can draw in new customers.

Well DAMN.

(I thought)

It’s happening. I mean it’s HAPPENED. They finally did it. Just like depicted in the classics we all know: The Jetson’s, The Power Rangers, Inspector Gadget, Predator, and Star Trek…

“Now your ordinary tasks become extraordinary” with the Samsung Galaxy Gear. Dropping mid-2013, this ‘not-so-regular’ 4-gigabyte timepiece was introduced into Samsung’s Galaxy family. In-sync to the Galaxy Note III (amongst other Galaxy devices), this piece sets some VERY high standards for others in their league – Sony SmartWatch 2 and The Pebble.

It definitely took long enough, but who would have THUNK it?! Thanks to Samsung, you may now have the REAL luxury of technology at the swipe of the wrist – so you thought.

I first seen this commercial and was immediately intrigued! They were able to get my attention – hold my interest – arouse my desire, and I was ready to call AT&T for an upgrade to the Galaxy Note III just to have this stupid thing! But the commercial didn’t do ENOUGH for me. I had question that needed answered. And upon seeking those answers, I found that this is in its EARLIEST stages of development and it may take a few more versions & dates before I’m ready to take action on a purchase.

It is NOT to be misunderstood; the main use of this device is to notify you of what’s happening with your phone. You can receive text messages and reply to them using S Voice, but other notifications must be handled on your handheld (send & receiving emails, Facebook/Twitter updates, etc.).This device does replace the use of your handheld – you’ll definitely need it nearby to put use to any of its features. The commercial kind of puts you under the impression that you can just leave your handheld device at home & use this wrist piece instead.

Even though I have an iPhone, I DO believe that Samsung went about having me believe that the right product was available to me at the right place and the right price. But fashion & fad can only get you so far, this commercial lacks SO MUCH information that is imperative for potential buyers to have. The more research that I did into this device the more I believed if I would have taken immediate action after seeing this commercial, I would have experienced some MAJOR dissonance. They TOTALLY forgot what the 3 basic promotion objectives were with this one.

 

Phoning it in

A few years ago, Dominoes came out and admitted what everyone already knew: their pizza was bad. The dough, the sauce, the cheese, all of it. Their brand identity had become cheap, low quality food. To remedy this the CEO of Dominoes, J. Patrick Doyle, appeared in a number of commercials apologizing for their pizza's quality while simultaneously looking surprised at the idea of his company serving bad food. The ads were successful and, along with some well planned deals, brought customers back.

It would appear that Dominoes is trying a similar strategy with their new ad campaign centered on their online ordering service. Unfortunately, where they came off sorry and willing to change in the first set of commercials, they only come off as stupid and incompetent in the latest set. It starts with a Dominoes employee answering the phone to take an order, and from there rapidly descends into chaos. He mishears the name of the customer. He doesn't know how to operate the hold button. He is confused about who is in a tunnel, but is pretty sure it isn't him, though he may not totally rule that out just yet. He even lightheartedly quips that "ordering Dominoes over the phone isn't always that great," suggesting that he is not the only one that skipped phone orientation day at work.

While the commercial does stumble its way towards the point, that ordering online is simple, fast, and convenient, the first half does not replicate the personable company that came clean about their bad recipe.

Bad Commercials

Bad commercial are the worst and it shows how the companies lack there Strategic planning.  When Companies are trying to show a promotion on their product they need not to always have a celebrity in the commercial. I chose these three commercials because in the Burger king commercials they are focusing too hard on the celebrities. Yes I know the food is there but they are not promoting it right. In both the burger king commercials they showed more of the celebrity then the food. Then when I came to the Old spice commercial all it advertised was how powerful it is. We all know that body spray can never be that powerful in life. They needed to focus more on the smell and the different types of fragrances they have. I thought that these commercials where really horrible and they really need some improvement. 

Toyota and Nascar

Toyota is known as a quality car manufacturer around the world. One of their biggest challenges has been for a Toyota to be accepted as an American made car. Through the 1990’s NASCAR grew in popularity to be one of America most viewed sports. At the same time it is an all American sport; as only American Manufactured cars are allowed to compete. Toyota has been using motorsports as a marketing tool since this 1970’s to promote their quality and reliability. Starting in 2000 they convinced NASCAR to allow them to compete on a lower level, eventually finding success on the track, they also found success in sales.

 In 2004 while entering into the full size truck market in the US, Toyota entered into the Nascar truck series to gain Market Penetration and Brand Recognition. With success in the truck series Toyota moved on to NASCAR Nationwide and Cup series with the Toyota Camry with the same goals in mind: Market Penetration and Brand Recognition.  In both the car and truck markets Toyota has accomplished their goal of becoming a American Brand by gaining Market Penetration, Brand recognition, Brand Preference, and are now in to Brand insistence. 

            An innovative and comical commercial like the one I choose, which was originally aired in 2008, have helped Toyota establish their presence in the Nascar community and has established them as an American brand in many people’s eyes. I would call this successful and profitable marketing.

"Sinking" about strategy

Having studied linguistics and a foreign language in college, language-based humor never ceases to amuse me. The Berlitz Corporation uses comedy in most of its television advertising to reach a wide audience. My particular favorite is a 2006 Norwegian commercial that seems to claim that language barriers can be very detrimental--possibly deadly--in certain situations.

Since its release, the commercial has garnered millions of views and fans all over the world. The video begins with two men in a control room of the German coast guard. There's a new employee being shown around briefly, and then he's left to fend for himself. It becomes clear that his English skills may not be quite up to par with what the position requires when a voice comes over the radio asking for help. The voice tells the man that they are sinking, which to a German ear can sound like "thinking," and lo and behold the German man responds by asking the sinking ship what they are "sinking" about.

This video, like all ads like go viral for their creative humor, is effective because of the massive audience it won. Defining a target market for language courses is difficult; everybody has their own unique reason for wanting to learn a foreign language. There may be some broad categories of potential language learners Berlitz uses to plan its marketing strategy, such as people who want to improve their English skills for business reasons.

The advantages of the services the Berlitz corporation offers are slightly more abstract than many products and services we see advertised on a daily basis, so it's important that Berlitz stay creative and use situational humor to reach its target audience. In America there is especially little enthusiasm about foreign language learning, largely due to a lack of understanding about the ways foreign language skills can be beneficial to a particular individual. Berlitz uses humor to help get these benefits across in an effective manner.

There are other videos, like this one and this one, that highlight other reasons or benefits for improving skills in a foreign language. Berlitz also released an "ad" this year for their new Klingon services--to which they added an April Fool's Day disclaimer that was naturally missed by many people. Overall, I think Berlitz's marketing campaign is a successful one for the kind of industry and helps their name stick out among competitors'.

Samsung's "Next Big Thing"

When I first saw this commercial for the new Samsung Galaxy Gear me and my brother were talking, and right as I was talking the it popped up on the TV and I was immediately drawn into it.  It has such a clear message that this is the kind of thing people have only dreamed about.  The commercial also works well because everybody who grew up in America has seen one of these TV shows or movies, allowing it to be mass marketed to many different people.  However only the last fifteen seconds of the commercial even show the product which leaves you to ask what does it really even do.

This prompted me to do a little research on it and what I found out really gave me some doubts.  According to  review I read on cnet it doesn't actually have many features and won't be totally replacing your phone either, it is still linked to your Samsung Galaxy Note 3 (and only the Galaxy Note 3 for the time being) by Bluetooth but can be used to make calls, send texts and use a few apps but no email or social services are supported yet.

The Samsung Galaxy Gear is the first smart watch that I've heard of but I learned that there are others, so this is an industry that is still in the market introduction stage so it'll be interesting to see if it catches on
.

The Marketing Magic of Disney

Disney Princesses. Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White are almost household names. They are a central part of the Disney media franchise, and many would argue are also a central part of a girl's childhood. For many young girls, knowing all of the songs to your favorite princess movie is rite of passage. To these girls, if you didn't grow up dancing to "Under the Sea" and singing to "Beauty and the Beast", you never had a childhood. But today, there is actually a lot more to these princesses than classic movies with tales as old as time and songs as old as rhyme.

So much more. 

In the late 1990s, Walt's Disney's Director of Consumer Products Andy Mooney was at a Disney on Ice show. While there, he noticed several young girls dressed in princess clothes from generic costume stores. He saw a demand with no supply. "They weren't even Disney products. They were generic princess products.” He addressed the company and suggested that they work on an authentic Disney Princess franchise. The original line-up consisted of Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, Belle and Jasmine. Today it has expanded to include Mulan, Pocahontas, Tiana, Rapunzel, and Merida. Two new princesses are to be added with the soon-to-be released Frozen.The beauty of the marketing strategy is that Disney didn't even put a lot of effort into promotion. They had already reached their target markets, but now just needed products to give them.

Instead of working on promotion and advertising, Disney focused their marketing strategy on partnering with companies like Sephora to come up with clothing lines and cranking out a huge variety of products. Distribution is their biggest means of marketing. Disney was also clever enough to group the princesses together into a royalty-conglomerate, increasing the exposure of all the princesses. Disney had several decades to establish the princesses and already had a quite a following for the princesses themselves. The window of opportunity turned into a phenomenon.

The franchise has released apparel, home decor, toys, books, television specials, games, dolls, dance clothes, dinnerware and wedding dresses. All of the princesses are also featured at meet-and-greets at Disney's resorts and theme parks. In 2011, Forbes reported that the Disney Princess franchise made over $1.6 billion domestically, and $3 billion worldwide. It outperformed the franchises Star Wars, Sesame Street, and Batman. Overall, their marketing strategy is paying off. Recently, Disney "updated" the official artwork of the princesses, receiving mixed reactions from parents and feminazis alike. And in recent years, Disney has come under fire over what kind of influence the princesses have over young girls. It does not appear to have made a dent in their sales, however. The franchise continues to make over $4 billion a year, and it continues to grow and expand. It must be the magic of Disney.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jennagoudreau/2012/09/17/disney-princess-tops-list-of-the-20-best-selling-entertainment-products/

Bored in a Board Meeting

 This Commercial is for the Moto X phone by Motorola. I believe that this commercial is aimed at Apple as the iPhone is the main phone that buzzes when you are receiving texts and other notifications. It brings into question good viewpoints of how and when the iPhone buzzes in awkward situations. I personally do not own a smartphone but I know plenty of people and have been in many classes where their phone has gone off making it awkward for everyone as they know they are not supposed to have it on.

I think that this commercial is highly effective at targeting a target market that would care about these kinds of things. In the ad, it seems like it is aimed at middle class people who wither have a job or are looking for one. Their target market seems to be about 22-30ish range. Before this ad, I did not know about this phone or even thought of Motorola as a contender in the smartphone field. But with this humorous ad, Motorola has become at least noticed in the area. With the new commercials, about 7 or 8 of them, the phone shows off its silent notification setting, along with its flashy voice activation, quick camera, and customization. The phone and website have not increased substantially since the commercials but they have racked up a lot of YouTube hits. One going viral with over 15 million hits already.

Although very few phones can compete with the iPhone, these commercials at least catch your eye with humor and introduce handy features in an appealing way. These commercials highlight a few of the iPhones problems, if this is enough for customers to switch from Apple to Motorola is, still to be seen. 

Hey, It Happens

 

 

 

 

        On March 20, 2013, Liberty Mutual Insurance published the commercial- Amateur Athletes to YouTube. It only produced about 4,000 hits during March Madness, Year –to-date only 89,000 views. Its focus was being HUMAN, with that said we do things that doesn’t make sense. Liberty Mutual wants to come off as sympathetic and they understand that we’re not perfect.  In advertisement Liberty Mutual spent nearly $160 million in measured media last year, with nearly $70 million of that amount allocated to market auto insurance. According to Kantar Media, Liberty Mutual is among the big names signed on to buy time in NBC Universal's coverage of the 2014 Winter Olympics to be held in Sochi, Russia. NBC Universal is projecting an $800 million-plus advertising haul for the games.

        From my point of view, it was awesome! They used comedic and real life scenarios. The fact that Liberty Mutual Insurance marketing strategy is to sale you responsibility (insurance). They have many markets they can appeal to. Liberty Mutual Insurance has homeowner, car, and life insurance. But, in this case they want to use those who need car insurance as a target market. Car insurance with added benefits in a standard policy. They want you to understand that car insurance is more than a collision, theft, a tree falling during a storm or vandalism. The fact that we’re humans, things happened.  When things happen you should be responsible at having insurance and choosing the right insurance. Liberty Mutual Insurance sales they guarantee repairs or new car replacement. 

 

 

 

 

 

Bioshock: Buried in Subtext

My favorite example of advertising lately has got to be the new trailer for Bioshock Infinite's downloadable content Burial At Sea, created by Irrational Games.  It's an expansion pack that adds to the game's narrative for $20. Irrational Games used the strengths of their storytelling medium to market their product in a unique way that I'm sure will be very successful for them.

But first, some background information: In the first Bioshock game that was released 5 years ago, your character explores the ruins of an art-deco city built under the ocean.  A man named Andrew Ryan  (read "Ayn Rand") built this place as a utopia for the exceptional, promising them freedom from the interference of government and "petty morality".  As you can imagine things do not go as planned, and war tears the city apart.  Back in 2007 Irrational games didn't have the technology to to show players the city in its prime, so they opted to tell their story through the dilapidated environment.  Gamers can piece together the story of how the city fell by studying corpses, analyzing the eerie propaganda posted around the city, and by listening to the voice recordings of former citizens.

Now in 2013 Irrational games is finally showing players what Rapture looked like pre-apocalypse, something players have been asking for for years (they really know their target market).  The first Bioshock's goal was to make the player want to know how the city fell apart.  It created a drive, not by telling consumers they desired more Rapture, but by showing them the city and letting their curiosity get the better of them. With the impending release of the DLC, the first game (which is considered by many to be one of the greatest games of all time, holding the title of "highest rated FPS " on Metacritic for 5 years) has become a 10 hour advertisement for this new installment.

A lot of game trailers show a lot of pre-rendered animation that isn't part of the game they're selling.  Consumers have become wary of this manipulatory tactic.  This trailer only shows actual gameplay footage, which wins the audience's trust.  What makes it even more convincing is the fact that every shot is shown from the player's perspective.  2K games is allowing players to preorder the two unreleased DLC's so it's important that gamers know what they're buying.  Very little information has been released about the new content, so this trailer essentially has to sell the product all by itself.  Judging by the buzz this trailer has caused (it has been given a lot of publicity through gaming news websites) I'm sure it'll be a huge success.  It doesn't hurt that Bioshock Infinite itself has already sold over 4 million copies.


Bioshock 1: Post New Year's Eve massacre

Before You Go...

On September 10, the "before-you-go toilet spray" called Poo-Pourri released an advertisement on youtube. It got over 4 million views the first morning. I happened to see the video on tumblr after it had gone viral. After just one week, the traffic on PooPourri.com increased over 13,000 percent. Putting the advertisement on youtube helped the company effectively reach the target market of younger people, generally girls 18-25. The ad would have been much less successful had it been shown on local television channels to middle aged or older people who would more likely find it offensive. The dirty jokes and catchy puns in this commercial were meant to attract younger people who would be more likely to buy the product.

So Poo-Pourri's marketing objective of gaining new potential customers definitely worked. It was also a smart idea to wait until the product was somewhat recognizable before paying for advertisements. Already 4 million bottles had been sold when the commercial was made, so it wasn't just a new product that blew all of its money on one chance. I had never previously heard of the product, but their website shows that they were already doing quite well. There are lots of different scents and even sprays for pets and kids. I also looked up where these products were sold other than online, and it turns out they are at specialty stores like hallmark and they're even sold in hospitals! So with an already well established business, the humorous commercial has attracted many new customers and it shows. A lot of the products on the website are currently sold out, and they had to add a note saying two weeks would be needed just to get a new order shipped.

Test in BMG155

I love the brain.



ilfsdfjdlkfaj

kl;a
faf
kljlfkjsdlkfjsalkjsdaklfjsdkla

Reviving the Brand and the City

Through strong use of appeal to emotion and visual intrigue, the advertisement for Chrysler went viral to the residents of Michigan and across the nation. Priced at only $18,000 the car looks and comes across expensive and luxurious against the somewhat dismal background but is still an attainable price for the average car shopper. Referring back to its roots in the city of Detroit, the product is exemplified as the regeneration of the city, and bringing Detroit back to life. It showed Detroit at its grimmest, from abandoned buildings to hard working people. Eminem, a Michigan native, serves as the opinion leader of the new Chrysler 200. With Eminem as this spokesperson, it further drives in the loyalty Chrysler has to the city.

Serving as the winner to the Super Bowl armchair ad-critic analysis, the ad was a hit. Post Super bowl the ad was the number two search term on Google, beating out the Black Eyed Peas, the band that performed during half time. Search traffic for the Chrysler 200 was 685 percent higher than a normal Monday. The ad is now at sixteen million views on YouTube, clearly proving the appeal to audiences.

I think this is an example of good marketing because it draws you in, and has strong emotional appeal. It gives you a history of the car and its roots in Detroit. It made people feel like they wanted to be a part of the new generation of Detroit by purchasing the new Chrysler 200.

Gamestop New Game Trade-ins

When a new highly-anticipated release comes out, Gamestop (the store that offers new and pre-owned games, as well as trade-ins for instore credit and cash value) offers their highest reward for game trade-ins.  This is a strategy that involves, price, place and promotion.  It is a good strategy for the business, however, it may not be the most suitable for the consumer.  Gamestop uses its location as a place, where people frequent, to get its word out about discounts offered towards newly released popular games by trading in.  However these games accepted toward trade-ins are a select few, highly antipicated and popular new games themselves.  This is an example of promotion, as they use a high priced, highly demanded release in order to sell these discounts. These trade-in values are a very good deal, in order to bring the price of merchandise more available, however the question is do gamers want to trade-in their brand new games in order to own another?  This strategy is very successful indeed, however, as a consumer, I would rather hold onto my purchases until, I decide that I am ready to trade in, if I ever choose to.

"Havainas, everyone wears it"

    Havaianas is one of the most popular brands in Brazil, and its main product are the flipflops. It’s funny to say “flipflops”, because in my country the word that we use to refer to the product is the name of the brand, which demonstrates its power and the monopoly that it has in the product. Formerly in the 20^th century its target market was the middle class and low, and the differentiation was quality, durability and low price. In the 90s the brand changed its positioning, with a huge success; its price went up, lots of different types and models were made, and they did a segmentation, with flipflops to kids with mickey mouse’s face on it for example, to young people with the possibility to personalize the product by putting a strass or changing the color, and for adults and older people there are models with more basic colors, that’s why the slogan’s “Havainas, everyone wears it”. Nowadays, the brand’s expanding to other countries and its commercials are always funny and entertaining, and show a lot about the Brazilian culture. This one that I chose shows that expansion, with the three Brazilian guys watching a soccer game with the flipflop, saying that it’s their lucky charm and don’t win the game because three Italians cheering for the opposite team are also using the flipflop with the same purpose.

   The brand has its own stores but the products are also sold in supermarkets and basically everywhere, but not with the variety found in the stores, so you don’t have the same experience. The marketing strategy is amazing and very effective, cause it created a major relationship with the customers. I wouldn’t buy flipflops if they weren’t Havaianas, that’s something that doesn’t even cross my mind. And I can say without hesitating that I don’t know a single Brazilian that doesn’t have havainas or that has just one pair.

Marcella Galeotti

Hitler Did Nothing Wrong

With the way that marketing is evolving today, companies are looking for more and more ways to advertise their products. However, not all of these are successful, especially when the internet is involved.

There are multiple examples of people trying to raise awareness of themselves, or their product through trying to do an internet poll. Whether it's Justin Bierber's "My World" concert, asking the people to pick where in the world he goes next (North Korea) to get his fans involved, or Pitbull teaming up with a product called Energy Sheets to see which Walmart Pitbull would visit to promote their product (Kodia, Alaska) in an attempt at market penetration, these have never been successful. The biggest flop ever for this however, has to be Mountain Dew's "Dub the Dew" campaign. As part of a new apple flavor of Mountain Dew, they started a poll asking people to vote on a name for it. They winner? Hitler Did Nothing Wrong. Now, this backfired to tremendously, that they canceled the promotion, and aside from a brief release as Mountain Dew Crave, the product never saw the shelf.

I think that while the idea behind these promotions is a good one, most of the people forget that their target market is a small part of the internet, and they're not going to be the only ones to notice it. However, if their marketing objective is to raise awareness of themselves or their product, then they're doing a good job of it. These stories have made headlines in multiple major news networks including ABC News and Time Magazine, which gets them more exposure than they may otherwise have had.

Everything I never knew I wanted!

I was on tumblr when I first saw the ad for Phonebloks. I rarely click on videos while scrolling around my dashboard but the comment underneath it caught my attention; it went something like this: “...the new iPhones look interesting. But this is an excellent idea for the future of cellphones.” And so I clicked. Within 30 seconds, I wanted one. After the 2 minutes 46 seconds, I wanted everyone to want one. Something in the simple explanation of how the device would work, the idealist opened platform and the possibility of customizing the phone to one’s liking created a need in me that I didn’t know I had. My iPhone seemed irrelevant. I was already hooked and moments later I was using all my social media reach to bring them more attention; their marketing objective to increase awareness of the idea worked on me without me even realizing it. And I wasn’t the only one. In less than 24 hours – 6 days before its official launch – the Phonebloks’ YouTube advertisement went viral! Both Reddit and tumblr loved the idea so much, it crashed Phonebloks’ website. In less than a day, they had reached 200 times their initial goal for 500 supporters on Thunderclap. 

The way ad is designed as a great impact on the ‘why’ of such a success. Even though the ad appears to be talking to a mass market, showing you examples of all the different people who could benefit from the different bloks customization options, they are really focusing on two main target markets;  social media users and ecologically-friendly people. The ad focuses really on two main aspects which reach those target markets perfectly. They start by show you how wasteful current phones and how to help eliminate that specific problem by simply giving the project a voice using three of the biggest social media websites; Facebook, Twitter and tumblr. Since I am both a bit of a hippy and a social media fiend, I guess I never stood  a chance!