I believe more than five years ago, some big cities in China started to celebrate Halloween. It was actually a marketing tool rather than a celebration cause we didn't really celebrate it. We just went shopping, bought some special candy or gift, joined some club parties, or had an exotic dinner. Most of us even didn't know what is Halloween. Businesses made millions money from advertising this western holiday.
"The word Halloween comes from medieval England's All Hallows' eve. Witches and other evil spirits were believed to roam the earth on Halloween evening, playing tricks on people. Bonfires were lit, offerings were made of foods and sweets, and people would disguise themselves as one of the roaming spirits, to avoid demonic persecution.
Survivals of these early practices can be found in countries of Celtic influence today, such as the United States and Canada where children go from door to door in costumes demanding “trick or treat” to receive candies and/or money." -- quoted from Bonita Russell's PPT
One thing is the same: businesses here also make millions money from Halloween. It's a perfect event to do marketing! I bought costume, pumpkin, basket, and treats. When you walk in a superstore, you can not pass the attractive shelves without stop, right? And it's easy to be influenced by the atmosphere.
During the forth class of Marketing, we reviewed the 4 principles of marketing and analyzed the "Seaplane" case. By working with all classmates, I have learned a lot! There were tons of ideas that I haven't though about and I felt more inspired. Also, I knew that for segmentation which I did in my last blog, one of my segment would not work well cause it doesn't consistent.
One important thing I have learned form the forth class is Product Positioning. We need to understand the symbols of the products that delivers emotions.
Positioning means placing the product in the customer's mind and it has to meet their conscious and unconscious needs. It has to meet the five levels and everything is consistent. It is a symbol of the emotional feeling. After several practices, I had a sense of this "positioning" idea. But still feel a little bit confuse. I believe I will understand better along with this course.
At the end of the third Marketing class, Paul gave us a case study which is a previous case exam. This one is interesting because I always want to go to Vancouver, haha..... The ferry takes two hours and then takes about half an hour to arrive downtown. It's a long trip, isn't it? But I still choose BC ferries instead of seaplane. In my experience, I believe student or international student is not a segment in this case.
Finding the emotional needs of a product or service is the first step we should do as a marketer. Using the Kotler's five levels tool let the digging become easier.
Service: Seaplane
Core benefit: transportation
Generic product: - ferries
- Air Canada
- West Jet
- helicopter
- boat
Expected product: - fast
- less crowded (fewer passengers)
- on-line reservation
- accsesable ( easy to get a ticket)
- comfortable
- affordable
Augmented product: - special seat which next to the pilot
- membership ( discount)
- flexible schedule
- more landing place
- video recording
Emotional product: - "I feel free"
- "I feel rich"
- "I feel successful"
- "I feel better than others" (status)
- romantic
For the market segmentation, I think there are three important groups: retired people, business people, and fashionable young people between 20-30 years old.
Retired people is a large group because Nanaimo is a retirement city, as well as this entire island. There are lots of senior villages on the island. They have money and enjoy their senior lives.
Business people is another group who travel a lot between the mainland and island. They would choose seaplane in order to save time and be on time. But I don't know if there are lots of big corporations on this island need this particularly efficient.
Fashionable young people between 20-30 years old always easier to accept the new things, such as seaplane. They go to Vancouver shopping a lot, sometimes with their girlfriends or boyfriends. They want to be proud and romantic.
These are the segments I could think about and I do think they are logical target markets. For the positioned product, I still confused. I believe next class Paul will illustrate this part.
The third class of Marketing started with a advertisement of a "Slide Projector" in the movie Mad Men. The ads is full of nostalgia and uses a carousel to show the childhood. At the end, the presenter gives the product's emotional need, time machine, which infects all the participants. A successful marketing should be like this: meet the emotional needs rather than the basic.
As reviewing the Kotler's five levels tool, we did another example.
Red Bull:
Basic need: energy
Generic product: - coffee, tea
- chocolate
- ...
Expect product: - cheer up
- boost
- easy to buy
- stay awake
- dance to the morning
- ...
Augment product: - sports
- nightlife
- portable
- thin ( healthy)
- taste sweet (taste not good which means it works)
- ...
Potential product: - "I'm the best"
- "I'm the superstar"
- can fly
- lasts longer
- strong, muscle, aggressive, charging, winner...
And what is the really meaning of the picture? Red bull is not only a drink, but a rocket! Products are not purchased for functional reasons is the Bible that all marketers should aware.
Later, we watched a commercial of the San Francisco 49ers:
Using the Kotler's five levels tool, the emotional products are:
- strong
- proud
- passion
- inspiring
- part of history
- nostalgia ( Joe)
- true self ( barbaric)
- legends
- I'm special
- paramount
- family - God
- faithful- trust in team
- ...
Using 3 levels analysis:
1. fun, family together
2. tradition, atmosphere, physically close, gods
3. member of war, history, successful, and church
So, if you do not join the game, you are an American loser, an unpatriotic.
Paul wrote an uncompleted sentence on the board:"When goes to a game, they feel ." As we filled different words in the first blank, we got different answer. For example, when college kids, 17-21 years old, they feel belong, sporting, powerful and athletic. Moreover, when a man, who is married and have kids, goes to a game, they want to feel young, free of family, responsibility, and nostalgia, as well as they have a bond with sons. Also, when a woman goes to a game, they feel free from house work, enjoy the family happiness and show her better marriage, as well as she is the best mother.
After we did those practices, Paul uncovered that this is marketing segmentation, which including science and art. Marketing could have several segments, but marketers should choose the most profitable one or more. This kind of segments are always meet following requirements: affordable, enough size, purchase decision makers, geographic, most profitable and having consistent behaviour. But, Paul also mentioned that people attend to buy what they can't afford is the dark side of market.
I feel segmentation is not a easy one to deal with, so I tried to find some explanation or figure to help understanding. There are four customers characteristics segment consumer market: geographic (where?), demographic (what?), behavioural (how?), and psychographic (who?). Also, I found a figure that would help me to understand: Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.
To understand and really use this knowledge needs times. I think as we do more exercises and analysis our group product, we will become more skilled.
My group is going to market Anti-aging skincare products for men. We are so excited with our product. We believe we will doing a very good job!
My group member, Lakshmy, comes from India. We both from Asian countries. Anti-aging product for men is popular in our countries and start to be recognized by younger group, such as men between 25-30 years old. We did a Kotler's Five Levels analysis together and started to have a good understanding of our product!
During the second class of Marketing, Paul introduced an analysis tool -- Philip Kotler's Five Product Levels model. This is a interesting and powerful one!
Philip Kotler, an economist, identified that the most important part of a product is to meet customer's emotional needs rather then basic needs. To illustrate his opinion and help us to understand these needs, he invented a five levels tool.
It is easy to get the core benefit of the product which is just the basic needs, as well as generic product. I was a little bit confusing about the expected and augmented product at first. I thought it's basic expectation, but it is augmented. It's hard to draw a clear line between them, and the most difficult part is to get the "emotional needs!" After doing some examples with Paul, it was getting clear and had a sense.
I think redo the examples by myself and practice more would help a lot.
Example 1: McDonald's
Core benefit: hunger
Generic product:
- other brands, such as Subway, Burger King
- coffee, Latte, cappuccino
- snakes
- muffin, lofe, salad
- noodle or rice
- cook at home
Expected product:
- taste good
- fast
- qualified
- affordable
- reliable
- ...
Augmented product:
- combo
- different choices
- drive through
- parking free and lots of parking lots
- 99 cents coffee
- seasonal drink
- kids area
- birthday party for kids
- kids combo with toy
- ...
Emotional product:
- relax, "I don't need to cook and clean"
- relief, "I don't have any groceries"
- pride, "I'm the best mother"
- status, "I'm better than other kids" (kids' view)
Just got an e-mail from the Chief Returning Officer, Patrick Barbosa, that I was elected to be the Faculty Representative of International Education. Yeah!!! Cheers!!! ^_^
This is a really exciting news. It means I have marketed myself successfully and was approved by the people who voted me. I was selling a service which different from other competitors. I won, but after I took the second class of Marketing, I'm confused. If I was selling a service, I have dug the basic needs and expected needs. But what are the students' emotional need that I have met or maybe I haven't. What are the similarities and differences between marketing a product in the market and marketing a person during a election? Are they same thing?
Anyway, I can start to do something for international students. I could remember the hard time that I had when I first came here. Language problem, cultural shock, and home sick..... Lots of difficulties. I noticed that I have been paying a student union fee every semester, but I didn't know what's that for. And I have only been there for selling used books. I really want to help those international students who have difficulties and afraid to ask. Here I go.
