#10 Consumerism; We consumers need to be informed.

In chapter 20 in our textbook, "Principles of Marketing," we learned about sustainable marketing and the ethics in marketing. Especially, consumerism is the idea of protecting the rights and power of buyers in relation to sellers. For example, the right to not to buy a product that is offered for sale, the right to expect the product to be safe, the right to expect the product to perform as claimed, and the right to be well informed about important aspects of the product. To protect these rights and power of consumers, marketers must work out of philosophy of socially responsible and ethical behavior, so that they will not make any harms for customers.

When I was reading this chapter, one case in Japan came to my mind. Many Japanese celebrity bloggers got about $500 to $4,000 from the company that manage penny auction sites in return for introducing the auction website in their blog. The big problem here was celebrity bloggers did not tell that they got money for introducing the penny auction, so that many people might misunderstood that those famous bloggers introduced it as a third party and trust that information. In addition to that, many of the bloggers used words and pictures and led viewers to think that those bloggers actually used the auction website and got a product at a good price, however, in the truth they did not use or buy things using the website.

One for the blog that are criticized. Image from http://geinounews.mobi/archives/1163 

The Japanese police arrested the manager of the company that asked celebrities to write about the penny auction website in their blog. Bloggers who gained money from the company and wrote the false or misleading information did not be arrested because the lighter charge and it already run out of the statute of limitations when their bad practice were brought to light.

This case is the one related to "undercover marketing." According to the Wikipedia,

Undercover marketing (also known as "stealth marketing", or, by its detractors, "roach baiting") is where consumers do not realize they are being marketed to. Buzz campaigns can reach consumers isolated from all other media, and unlike conventional media, consumers tend to trust it more often, as it is usually coming from a friend or acquaintance. Overall, the person doing the marketing must look and sound like a peer of their target audience, without any signs of an ulterior motive for endorsing the item.

Example

Sony Ericsson used an undercover campaign in 2002 when they hired 60 actors in ten major cities and had them accost strangers and ask them: "Would you mind taking my picture?" The actor then handed the target a brand new picture phone while talking about how cool the new device was. "And thus an act of civility was converted into a branding event.

In the case of the Penny auction website, consumers were not informed that the celebrities posts on their blog is the advertisement. Also, because bloggers are celebrities and famous people, people were more likely to believe that the website was safe and benefited us with very cheap prices and good products. The penny auction has appeared in 2009 and it was not popular at all, so the company used the celebrities to gain a lot of people's recognition and their trust using the power of celebrities. Thanks to the Internet, we consumers receive a lot of  information very easily, and that means it is much easy to mislead consumers. I think the importance of the marketers to follow the marketing ethics and satisfy customers with satisfaction is increasing.


Sources;
The Japan Times "Celebrity bloggers not required to disclose paid endorsements"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerrilla_marketing

For more information......
I found another example of stealth marketing (or undercover marketing) in the USA.
Stealth marketing: When you're being pitched and you don't even know it!

#9 failure of Euro Disney

Even a huge company with enough people's recognition may fail in global market, if it does not conduct an enough market research and adaption to the local. The failure of Euro Disney in France shows us the difficulty of the intercultural business.

The Euro Disney opened the very first park in Paris in 1992. This is created from the blue print of Disney California. Euro Disney tried to sell the American way of holiday, so a few years later Euro Disney suffered from their debts, and there was the rumor that the Euro Disney would be close because of the bankruptcy. Actually, the Euro Disney did not get enough visitors and had a financial problem so that they needed to talk with the bank for help. At this time the Saudi royal family, which now owns 38% of shares, invested $350 million on Euro Disney and saved it from the bankruptcy.




Also, their American way of management did not work well in Paris, so within one year, about 25% of Euro Disney's workforce, which is approximately 3,000 people, had quitted their jobs because of unacceptable working conditions. 

In terms of food and restaurants, Euro Disney did not allow any alcohol in the park, however, people in France usually drink wines for their every meal, so people did not like it. In addition to alcohol, the Euro Disney made a lot of food stand and fast food shops in the park rather than the restaurant because that was the common way in American amusement parks. However, many French people prefer to take a seat in the restaurant and take longer time to eat and enjoy, many visitors concentrated in the restaurant and long line for restaurants disappointed visitors. 

As an advertising, Euro Disney advertised their park emphasizing on the size of the park and the money they spent for the construction rather than telling the attractiveness of the park, those were not appealing to the French. Rather, some French people were mislead to the idea that Euro Disney was arrogant.

In the USA, many people stay at the Disney Resort for three days at average. Thus, Euro Disney expected customers to stay as long as the American people do, but actually, the stay was shorter than it expected.

As a first step to adapting the local, Euro Disney was subjected to the change of the name, and now Euro Disney changed the name from the "Euro Disney resort" to "Disneyland Paris," aiming to wipe out the negative impression on "Euro Disney Resort," and get the local people's attention.

As I wrote above, Euro Disney met a lot of misunderstanding of the French market and got a lot of debts. It is still burdened by as much as $2.20 billion and that is 15 times its gross average earnings. The magic of Disney seems to have a universal excitement, but even one of the most famous company in the world cannot ignore the concept of cross cultural marketing. When a company tries to expand into a new country or region, a company needs to conduct a research to understand the cultural environment, such as folkways, norms, and taboos, because those cultural differences affect consumers reactions.

Sources:
http://www.businessinsider.com/euro-disney-announces-1-billion-crisis-plan-2014-10
http://www.123helpme.com/disney-in-tokyo-and-paris-view.asp?id=164635
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disneyland_Paris#1995_turnaround

#8 Does Coca Cola still need to advertise?

What is the purpose of advertisement such as TV commercial, poster, bill board? I thought it was raising the recognition of a company of its products. However, it is more that that! As the time goes by, company need to create a different brand image.

Everyone knows Coca Cola. Coca Cola has the largest market share; 42.8% in 2011 and 1.7 billion servings of Coke products are consumed every day. Also, I found a data that says "The red and white Coca-Cola logo is recognized by 94% of the world's population."(http://steelmediainc.com/case-studies/22/coke/) Without any doubt, Coca Cola is a leading firm in the world and Coca Cola has enough recognition. However, Coca Cola still keep using a lot of money for advertising, and Coca-Cola spends more money on advertising than Microsoft and Apple combined.(citation) Now that I know this fact, that is true that I often saw Coca Cola TV commercial.

Products do not sell well just because they are known well. Therefore, Coca Cola tries to create a brand image that suits the times. You can see that from the fact that Coca Cola changes its slogan depending on the times. Coca Cola changes its slogan every few years. For example, in 1906, slogan was "The Great National Temperance Beverage." 1906 is during Progressive Era, and there were the movement toward Prohibition of alcohol. Thus, Coca Cola marketed itself as a good alternative to alcohol. Still now, Coca Cola changes its slogan at least  every few years. (You can see the list of the slogans here.)What marketers need to do is understanding the trends and the mood of consumers of the times, creating a brand image that is suitable for the time and that gets a lot of empathy from the people in the times, and sending a message to consumers by advertisement. By spending a lot of money on marketing and advertising, Coca Cola always fits the times, gets brand loyalty, and sells well for a long time. Advertising is not only getting more awareness, but also creating a brand image and sending a message that fits the trend of the time.

Citations
http://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/coke-lore-slogans

#7 I encountered an online market research firm, Macromill, Inc.!

From Nov. 7 to Nov. 9, I participated in the Boston Career Forum , a Japanese-English bilingual job fair. As many as 190 Japanese international companies came to the event to hire Japanese students who are studying in the USA and students from any countries who can speak Japanese and English. In the Boston Career Forum, every companies had a small booth, and students visited booths of the companies they are interested in, listened to approximately 30-minute company information and submitted their resume.


In the Boston Career Forum, I found an interesting company, Macromill, Inc., a Japanese online market research firm, and listened to the company information session. I was excited at that time because in our marketing class, we learned about market research. The textbook, "Principles of Marketing," says that "Some large companies have their own research departments that work with marketing managers on marketing research projects. In addition, these companies-like their smaller counterparts- frequently hire outside research specialists to consult with management on specific marketing problems and to conduct marketing research studies."(p.106) This company, Macromill, is the outside research firm!!Main role of this company is listen to a client about their problems, identify what kind of questions they need to answer, conduct a primary research, analyse the data they get for the client, and make a strategy with the client. In today's blog, I want to share what I learned from the company information session.





What I found interesting from the company information session was the difference of sales and marketing. A person from Macromill explained that the act of sales is asking people who do not want to buy and persuade them to buy, on the other hand, marketing is justification; making the system in that people want to buy spontaneously with their own will. He illustrated this difference with an interesting example.

The example is about the Odenplan station in Stockholm.
In the station, there was a escalator next to a stairs, so most people chose escalator, and people really need the escalator, such as the elderly and pregnant, cannot use it comfortably. To solve this situation, there are two possible ways. One is putting the poster saying "Please use stairs so that people in need can use the escalator." This is asking people to do what they are unwilling to do. The other way is to make a system that each stairs makes sound as people step on, so that people enjoy to use stairs and spontaneously choose stairs over escalator. This is what marketing need to do. Marketing is giving a reason, justification or incentive to do something.
Marketing strategy is to make a system to change or affect people's behavior!

#6 the importance of marketing ～providing the same productｓ, but sell differently～

We learned 4 steps for a customer-driven marketing:

1. segmentation, dividing the market into small segments,
2. targeting, selecting the segments you will target and appeal to,
3. differentiation, differentiating the products and creating competitive advantage, and
4. positioning, positioning the products in the minds of customers.


I found some Japanese companies and products that illustrate well the importance of these steps of marketing, so I'll show you.


The first example is "スタジオアリス" or "Studio Alice Co.,Ltd.," which are a Japanese photo studio company, targeting the families who have children.


Customers may use photo studio in various occasions, such as wedding, graduation, coming of age ceremony and so on. However, Studio Alice targeted children and provides the services that fit children. For example, most workers in Studio Alice are women.

Studio Alice provide the service of free costume rental, and it allows customers to change costumes as much as they want, so that children enjoy taking pictures. Also, thanks to the service, not only parents but also grand parents come to the photo studio for grand children and enjoy to choose costume and posing all together. Studio Alice give customers a enjoyable place where all families get together for children. This service also benefits Studio Alice, because grand parents also come to the store, so customers have what is called "six pockets," parents and grand parents pocket money, and photos sell well.

There are a lot of companies whose service is taking pictures, but Studio Alice targeted children, and differentiate its services that provide the place for children and their family to enjoy taking photos, so Studio Alice succeeded.

The next example is "Kit Kat,"a chocolate from Nestlé.

At first, Kit Kat was a just one of a reasonable chocolate brands in Japan.
However, now Kit Kat is a lucky chocolate that brings student　a luck to pass the entrance exam.
This is because of play on words.In Japanese, "Kitto Katsu" means　"You will win," and the pronunciation is similar to "Kit Kat." Also, the entrance exams for college, university, high school, or junior and high are very big and important events for Japanese students.

Therefore, the company market Kit Kat focusing on students who will take the exams that are usually taken place on the spring., their friends and families.

For example, the package of Kit Kat has space to write message, so that people can give Kit Kat to friends who are going to take exam. Marketers position Kit Kat as a perfect gift to the students, because the name of Kit Kat is very good for exam, chocolate gives energy for the exam, and Kit Kat is not so expensive to give friends. This Kit Kat in the picture below has a place to put a stamp and write a zip code, to send Kit Kat as a mail.
 
Also a lot of cherry blossom flower are printed on the package, because the cherry  blossom flower is the symbol of passing the exam.
Because of these efforts, Kit Kat sell better that before, even though Kit Kat itself is the same as before.

Kit Kat also position itself by different way.
Kit Kat has a lot of tastes only provided in a limited region, and regarded as a popular and useful souvenir to give others.
For example in Kyoto, a famous green tea producer, there is a green tea Kit Kat.
In Hokkaido, a famous melon producer, there is a melon Kit Kat.  



Kat Kat target students who will take exams and tourists, differentiate from another chocolate, by its design and tastes.
After these marketing efforts, Kit Kat is not a just chocolate, has a unique brand image, and sell well.

#5 diferenciation

In the class, my group chose apparel industry for the mini-report, and I found that each companies has a different strategy and differentiate the company and position the company differently.

At first, apparel market value keeps growing during 2009 to 2014 moderately, and it is expected to increase about 5.5%. By 2018, total revenues will increase to $1,694 billion.

I was surprised at the fact that the apparel industry keeps expanding because apparel is not a new emerging industry, like animation industry, rather it is old. I could not understand why apparel industry increases because people have been buying cloths, so the industry should be stable.



Our group chose H&M, and looked at it closer.
According to the company profile,  H&M had about $19,708 million of total revenue in 2013 and H&M made 6.4% growth over 2012.

H&M's strategy to expand is
going into new markets, especially Asia, Oceania, and America, other that European countries,(market development)
starting on line sales (market development & market penetration), and
creating a new fashion brand, for example sports collections (product development).

The competitors of H&M are
Marks and Spencer Group plc.,
Otto (GmbH & Co KG),
Arcadia Group Limited, and
Fast Retailing.

Marks and Spencer Group plc. is a major British retailer.
What is different about Marks and Spencer group is that they started food business (product development).

They keep investing on food business by opening 150 new UK M&S Simply Food stores over the next three years, and starting food business overseas especially in Western Europe.

Otto (GmbH & Co KG) is a mail order company mainly based in Germany and France.
It has a notable characteristic as a mail order company.


There are a lot of way to expand. Product/market expansion grid shows 4 different way to expand. Within one way, for example product development, there are a lot of opportunities, like starting new food business and creating a new sports collection. Each companies identify their own growth opportunity. For me, apparel industry seems that there are no way left to expand, but I thought there are infinite opportunities in every industry.

product/market expansion grid

#4 marketing using Twitter

Twitter in Marketing!

Do you remember about ALS ice bucket challenge? That created a huge movement and thanks to it, ASL Association raised $100 million as well as awareness. Now SNS has a tremendous power in marketing. In the class, we also learned that many companies use SNS, such as Twitter, for their marketing research. We saw the video that shows Domino's Pizza collects customers' real and honest opinions from Twitter. So I looked for other companies that use Twitter for marketing.


First product I found interesting is HUGGIES!
HUGGIES is the brand of a disposable diaper marketed by Kimberly-Clark. Kimberly-Clark has the top market share in the baby wipes industry in the USA with 35.4% in 2013. Kimberly-Clark also has a famous brand Kleenex. Procter & Gamble Co.(P&G) has the second biggest market share with 20.9%. Procter & Gamble Co. has the brand Pampers.
 

In 2013, HUGGIES provides a unique service, TweetPee.
If you put the sensor to a baby's diaper, it will send you a tweet to tell you it's time to change a diaper.


By this unique service, TweetPee, HUGGIES got some customers' attention.
The app that cooperates with the sensor also tracks the number of diaper used, so parents can easily know the number of diapers left at home, and order HUGGIES's diapers on the Internet easily by the app. Therefore, Kimberly-Clark keeps the customer buying HUGGIES again.

Here is the link to the article about TweetPee.



Next is about Colgate.
Colgate is the brand marketed by Colgate-Palmolive Company, and it produces 
soaps, detergents, oral products, and so on.

The competitors of Colgate-Palmolive Company are
1. P&G, whose sales in 2013 was $80,062,000,000
(Colgate-Palmolive Company comes here with $17,420,000,000 sales)
2. Kao Corp. $14,593,150,000
3. Sun Products Corp. $11,401,000,000.



Colgate's campaign is "There's Something In your Tweet"

Let Colgate tip off your friends anonymously through Twitter about food stuck in their teeth. They’ll also send them a $1.00 off coupon for a new Colgate Slim Softtoothbrush to help make sure it never happens again.
You will also get access to the coupon once your friend has received their tip.
- See more at: http://www.simplyfrugal.ca/colgate-coupon-1/#sthash.cI60obkj.dpuf

Let Colgate tip off your friends anonymously through Twitter about food stuck in their teeth. They’ll also send them a $1.00 off coupon for a new Colgate Slim Softtoothbrush to help make sure it never happens again.
You will also get access to the coupon once your friend has received their tip.
- See more at: http://www.simplyfrugal.ca/colgate-coupon-1/#sthash.cI60obkj.dpuf

If you visit Colgate's SlimSoft site, you can anonymously send a tweet to your friend and tell him or her that there is some food stuck in the teeth. Then, both you and your friend can get a $1 off coupon for a new Colgate Slim Softtoothbrush. You can use this campaign to tell your friend the embarrassing situation without hurting the friend's feeling or just joke and make your friend surprised for fun.

Here is the link to the article about the Colgate campaign
Another link to the article


Marketing using Twitter has a lot of advantage. Twitter is free, and companies can reach a lot of people so quickly. However, it is difficult to create a big movement such as Ice Bucket Challenge, and if a campaign is not successful, the campaign cannot get a lot of people's attention. Actually I guess many of you have never heard of these two services I wrote here.

Another problem of Twitter is that many older people still do not use it.The figure below shows the number of Twitter users by age groups. It shows that only 5% of people over 65 use Twitter. Now many countries have aging population, so I think the usual ways of advertising, such as TV commercial and billboard, are still very important.

Number of people who use Twitter 

number of people who use SNS 

I got these figures from this web site.