Marketing Mistake - Microsoft

Spending millions of pounds on a television advert allows you too promote your product too millions of viewers, but when your advert is taken of the air and scrapped because of complaints, then it leads to a massive loss for companies... surely the biggest mistake of all is too invest in making of an advert that can't be publicised, or removed because of complaints.

Not only do these mistakes happen in televised advertisements, but the likes of billboards can be also banned.

ASA (Advertising Standard agency)

The organisation that would usually decide whether an advert would be publicised or not would be the ASA. Below is a brief summary of who they are taken directly from their website:

"The Advertising Standards Authority is the UK’s independent regulator of advertising across all media. We apply the Advertising Codes, which are written by the Committees of Advertising Practice. Our work includes acting on complaints and pro actively checking the media to take action against misleading, harmful or offensive advertisements. " www.asa.org.uk

Microsoft

Microsoft creating this advertisement several years back advertising the Xbox 360. It involves a whole subway station shooting each other with pretend guns - their fingers. Although this may look really fun, the advert causes a lot of controversy, especially that fact that it involved people shooting each other in subway stations, a place where there has always been a lot of security risks!

Never the less, I can imagine the cost of producing the advert wasn't cheap, especially using a whole section of a subway (probably a set), and a lot of actors, it just goes to show that even the funny adverts can be banned, so be careful what is said/shown!

Home office - Go home

Not only do large public limited corporations get it wrong, but so do government corporations, an example of this is the UK Home Office. For many reasons this advert was banned, these include

• Misleading information: the threat to put the immigrants to jail is absurd, since the law states that they will just be deported.
• It is near impossible for members of the public to tell whether someone is an "illegal immigrant" or not, this advertisement could have lead to a lot of controversy, and people could have been labelled for racism as a result of this.

Paddy Power -Blind people booting cats

Insulting blind people and kicking cats, what's that got to do with betting?  Paddy Power received 1,313 complaints following this ridiculous marketing mistake. The advert involves a blind football match, where a cat runs onto the football pitch and is booted by one of the footballers, yes some may find this funny, but too air this live on television, surely the knew they would become one of the most complained about adverts in the UK at that time.

Marketing Mistakes - International marketing

One of the biggest problems that develops a marketing mistake, especially in international marketing, is translations.

So many big organisations have had these problems when entering new markets, where campaign slogans or names of products have been translated into offensive messages. Here are just a few of the marketing blunders caused by the translation issue:

Pepsi - "Pepsi brings your ancestors back to life"

Pepsi are one of the big brands that suffered this marketing flaw, when trying to expand into China. Pepsi marketing campaign to penetrate the far east focused on the motto "Come alive with the Pepsi Generation" , which translated into "Pepsi Brings your ancestors back to life" . Although this may seem funny, expanding internationally is very costly, and a campaign which offers such a "bold statement" and absurd message from the view of the Chinese population could have cost Pepsi millions of pounds. This mistake is worse compared to many other campaigns that are translated internationally because of  the opportunities  of China's dramatically rising economy.

Coors Light - "Suffer from Diarrhoea"

Coors Light, the American beer company, decided to use the slogan "Turn it loose" when advertising its product in Spain. Unfortunately for Coors, the translation of their popular slogan in Spanish meant "Suffer from Diarrhoea". Slightly more hilarious than the Pepsi mishap, the Coors Light slogan could have potentially damaged their reputation in Spain, especially when comparing a consumable good as something that will potentially make you "Suffer from Diarrhoea"

KFC- Finger licking good, or eat your fingers off?

The final brand that will be covered in this marketing mistakes post will be Kentucky Fried Chicken. KFC decided to branch out into the Asian markets like many other companies have done before, and like many other companies, they did not do their research into how their slogan would be translated. In 1985, KFC hit mainland China, bringing their slogan  with them which is just as famous as the brand itself  -"Finger licking good". Little did they know that when translated into Chinese lettering, their slogan would state "Eating your fingers off". Now this marketing mistake could have cost KFC millions of pounds just like Pepsi, but because of their brands strength, they succeeded in china after changing their slogan and proceeed to have over 900 outlets in China.

Conclusion

Whether a business large or small (but most likely large) when moving into international waters, make sure that you pull our your new dictionary and get translating! Although the said companies managed to get away with their marketing mistakes, others may not be so lucky!

Advertisement of the week : Ant & Dec

This is a belated advertisement of the week which was wrote several weeks back, but because of assignments and exam revision I was unable to finish it, but here it is now!

Our advertisements of the week include both a Christmas theme and TV show advertisement,both featuring two hilarious men from the north east of England, Ant and Dec!

I'm a celebrity get me out of here

As a lot of you will all know, the very popular ITV show "I'm a celebrity GET ME OUT OF HERE!" has just started this past Sunday, and to get people on board, the faces of the show Ant and Dec featured in a short 1 minute advert on ITV to promote the show! But they aren't the reason I enjoyed this short clip, the reason is the Aussie driver who picks them up...check it out and see why!

Christmas with Morrisons

 The second advert in my advertisements of the week this week is the Morrison's Christmas Advert. this little number features the "be our guest" song which famously stars in the well known Disney classic Beauty and the Beast, with the main stars being Ant, Dec and the gingerbread man! This advert differs from the John Lewis advert included in advert of the week last week as it uses celebrity endorsement, Ant & Dec.

Marketing Mistakes - New Coke

Marketing is used by all companies, from large Plc.'s too small sole traders, so occasionally, things are can wrong.

This series of blog posts will highlight various marketing mistakes, large and small, and how the companies that made these mistakes dealt with the situation they put themselves in.

New Coke

One of the biggest marketing mistakes from all time happens to come from one of the largest companies in the world, The Coca-Cola Company. This marketing disaster occurred in one of the most important times in Coca-Cola's history, when the "coke wars" between themselves and Pepsi Cola was bigger than ever before.

Coca-Cola, the worlds no.1 drink, was to be re-released as "New Coke". New branding, new taste and serious faces to promote the brand was to be put into the member of the publics eyes, little did Coke know that they were going to be making one of the biggest marketing mistakes known to man!

New coke, source: www.coca-colacompany.com

New coke was introduced in 1985 to try and increase Coke's market share, which had been slipping over the past 15 years closer and closer to Pepsi, their nearest rivals. (http://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/coke-lore-new-coke, 2013). Celebrities such as Bill Cosby were brought in to promote what was meant to be the "new tasting phenomenon"... although this was not the case. By June 1985, The Coca-Cola Company was receiving on average 1,500 calls a day on the consumer hotline, this being compared to the 400 a day before the taste change, showed that Coca-Cola had made a big mistake, some would even say the worse marketing blunder of the century.

By July, Coca-Cola announced that the original Coca-Cola would be put back into store's, meaning those who had been rationing their Coca-Cola bottles would be free to start drinking that taste they ever so loved.

BUT.... the question by many people is, was this actually a marketing mistake?

Since this "marketing epidemic" Coca-Cola have been the leading soft drink in almost every country in the world, as well as "Coke" being the second most used word, second to "OK".

New Coke happened to not tingle those Coca-Cola lovers taste buds, but when they decided to bring back the original Coca-Cola, those who loved the product before fell in love right away, and this is the reason why they have continued to be the leading soft drink.

Although Coca-Cola got away with this mishap, it does not mean any other company can.

The strength of The Coca-Cola Company's brand, and the acquired taste of the original Coca-Cola just goes to show that a highly reputable brand with one of the best products in a market can get away with the stupidest of marketing ploys ... But I wouldn't advise it for any other company

Quick update : Intergrated Marketing Communications

Part of one of my modules, Integrated Marketing Communications, is to produce a blog and complete 3 articles focusing on these topics. Luckily, starting this blog several months ago I'm already slightly ahead of my peers, and sort of have the hang of this "Blogging" malarkey!

My task is to produce three blog posts covering certain topics, which are:

• Marketing Mistakes
• Guerrilla Marketing
• Advertising to Children
• Digital Media

Although I am only required too complete three post on said topics, I will aim to cover all of the topics is several different blog posts, so keep your eyes peeled!

Cheers,

Kyle.

Advertisements of the week - John Lewis & Marks and Spencers

Coming into the winter months, and just over a month to go till Christmas, I'm sure this will be one of many adverts of the week that includes a Christmas theme!

This week's Advertisements of the week come from two well known UK retailers; M&S and John Lewis!

John Lewis - The Bear and the Hare

First we will start with the John Lewis Bear and the Hare advert. This advert focus' on an emotional message, using a short cartoon that pictures a hare introducing a bear to his very first Christmas, as he had hibernated through it every other year! :)

BUT the story doesn't end their, as well as being broadcast on TV, the advertisement is also online, and John Lewis have made it interactive! The option allows you to continue the story, which you can do here!

This very cute advert ends with a small message, "Give someone a Christmas they'll never forget", now who wouldn't want to do that for a loved one :) !

M&S - Alice in Wonderland

The second advert that caught my eye this week is the M&S advert. Fairly similar to the John Lewis advert, with a slight story being the advertisement. M&S use the well known Alice in Wonderland theme, where the main character falls down a rabbit hole into a "Magic and Sparkle" wonderland.

This advert, unlike the John Lewis one, promotes some of the season collection available at M&S this holiday season, and with several well known actors being included in this high budget promotional video, I can clearly say they've created a memorable advert which will catch your eye with ease!

Now I apologise for blogging about these adverts as i'm sure they will get you into the Christmas Mood!

Cheers

Kyle :) !

Ohhh and one more thing.....Still waiting to see that Coca-Cola ad if you know what I mean!!

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You know when you've been Ron Burgundy'ed - Stay Classy Tango

Just a quick blog post about a small advertising campaign I noticed by Tango the other day featuring Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell)!

As some of you may know, the much anticipated Anchorman 2 will be released in Cinemas this December in the UK, and one of the brands to join up with Ron Burgundy himself is tango!!

"Anchorman 2: The legend continues", has attracted so much attention, with several trailers being shown across you tube thousands of twitter followers , and being the sequel to the multi-million pound making "Anchorman: The legend of Ron Burgundy", its bound to have you bad laughing! Featuring actors such as Steve Carell from 40 year old virgin & The Office, Will Ferrell and many more, how could you not love this film?

Tango sporting Ron Burgundy

As you can see from the picture located to the right, Tango have positioned your favourite news anchor Ron Burgundy onto their cans and bottles. BUT the question is, does "celebrity endorsement" such as this work on products such as tango? A convenience good with very little too no thinking time to decide whether to purchase the product.... Well usually i would agree with theory in saying that celebrity endorsement is a very good tool for items such as speciality good but not convenience. as I personally would not buy Tango, but just because it had Ron's charming picture on it,I had to snap it up, and I didn't even look at the price!

Stay Classy Blogger!!

Kyle

Advertisements of the week - Taco Bell & Xbox One

Pondering on where to go next with my blog, I've decided to start a "off the week" style post. Obviously a lot of these can be seen in many fashion blogs, but with this showing no relation to what I post about, the idea of Adverts of the week came into my head, so once a week I will be babbling on about some interesting adverts I've seen over the week, whether they be fairly recent advertisements or something I've found browsing the internet. Todays will feature a comical advert from Taco Bell and an advert showing insight into the Xbox One. Enjoy!

Taco Bell

While browsing the web  I found this advert from the fast food giants Taco Bell. This is an American based commercial that is promoting their power protein menu, using humour and some celebrity endorsement.

The main reason this caught my eye was purely the fact it was hilarious, obviously not having Taco Bells in the UK, the advertisement was not shown on TV, but because it also went viral, I've came across it a few times and I'm bad laughing every time!

Taco Bell's Power protein (burrito)

http://www.whitehousepost.com/editors/los-angeles/lucas-spaulding/reel/taco-bell-power-beach/

The advert, as you can see from the link above ( I was unable to find a YouTube version to upload), involved kali muscle, a well known bodybuilder and Mr Olympia contender, and some other rather large men drinking and shouting about protein,

The advert aims to try and persuade the target audience to have one of Taco Bells Power Protein products over a typical protein shake, which is portrayed to not taste nice at all (which is quiet accurate.)

Taco Bell are utilising the market with this product, with a large amount of people focusing upon eating more healthy, and more males wanting to get "bigger", hence the emphasis on the protein, and the word "POWER".

Xbox One

Yes I know I got on about the next generation consoles a lot , but their release dates are just around the corner and I'm still undecided on which product to buy. The second advertisement that caught my eye this week was the Xbox Ones.

Up until this advert, I was still unaware of the reasons for the name of Microsoft's new console, but as you can see from this short advert, Microsoft have tried to make an "all-in-one" system which allows you to do anything and everything, turning your tv into a smart TV, with voice activation and hands-free features, what else could was ask for?

People such as Steven Gerard and Spock star in this 1:40 minute commercial, which shows both the features of the new console and some of their exclusive games.

Well done Microsoft, your pulling me closer and closer towards your product!



Xbox One Invitation

 

 



Tools of the trade: Acer Iconia B1

Acer Iconia-B1

As a student in the 21st Centure, its essentially to have all your gadgets and gizmos to make your life a lot easier. One of the gadgets I've acquired while at university which has helped me pass my time as well as help with my studies in the Acer Iconia-B1, a tablet brought to you by the well known computer manufacturer ACER.

Although I love my gadgets, being a student, I'm not exactly carrying spare cash on me, so when I saw this tablet I knew I had to get it.

I chose this snazzy tablet over anything like the Apple iPad because of several different reasons:

PRICE - for £99 you can't be robbed can you? compared to the hundreds you'd pay for an Apple product its definitely worth it

KEY FEATURES -

• Extremely light for those "bringing lots of books too uni" days
• Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) 
• Expandable memory up to 32GB microSD (can be purchased on amazon fairly cheap!
• 7-inch muti-touch screen with 1024 x 600 pixels (pretty standard)
• 8GB Internal memory 
• Built in speakers, webcam, wi-fi enabled, mic (for skyping!) 3.5mm headphone jack
• A decent battery life (3.5 hours depending on usage)
• It's good looking!

Now obviously, the specs aren't as high as an apple iPad, but with some of the latest android specs, it runs very smoothly and I haven't had one problem with it yet!

WHY A STUDENT WOULD USE IT?

Why would someone like me use it you ask? Well where do I start? One of the main reasons I thought this purchase was a good idea was the fact that I could access electronic copies of several books from my library at university, but putting it on my laptop was not accessible enough and putting it onto my phone was just a pain, having to try and scroll just to read one piece of text. So an alternate to something such as a KINDLE was this product!So yeah, for anyone wanting to just buy an e-reader, first look at tablets, yeah their battery life may not be as long, but unless your going to be reading a book for 8 hours straight then there is no problem!

Movies! What student doesn't find themselves watching movies? And I'm sure many of you will download them, through places that will not be named or even through the actual DVD itself (some DVD's offer digital copies). Now i found myself going on a Megabus quiet regularly, whether it was going home for a family members birthday or visiting friends. At first I used my laptop, but it died within an hour or so, meaning i'd get half way through a movie and it would just die! But not with my acer iconia! I can enjoy up to 2 movies a journey depending on how long my journeys are, as well as being able to use their extremely slow wi-fi to access pages such as Facebook and twitter.

AND FINALLY, just messing around! I found my self many times in my first year doing nothing but being on my phone, now why do that on a small screen when you can do that on a larger screen !! Playing temple run, browsing social networking sites, looking at the BBC website for important information is just made so much easier on a tablets screen!

Now this review is not to persuade you to go out and buy this product, it's just a way off trying to show you that modern technology of today can be usefull for whatever your doing, whether it be gaming, weight training or yes even studying!!!!!!!!

Cheers Kyle!!

Acer Iconia B1 - http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/1079559.htm

Quick Update, time to get this Blog rolling!

Haven't posted in a very long time, had so much work to do with the CIM, but now going into my second year of university , once again I've found myself some spare time!

From now on hopefully I'll be posting several articles a week on my new course subjects, marketing related subjects and also hopefully my progression through the application process for a year placement that I will hopefully (fingers crossed) be completing after I have completed my second year!

One of my subjects this year, Integrated Marketing Communications, will also involve me having to write three blog posts as part of the personal development section of the subject. These will probables be posted onto a different blog if it requires, and therefore  I will link or copy that article also onto my main blog! If not then I'm sure you will be seeing them fairly soon :)

So yeah... keep checking back to see more frequent posts (which will hopefully be interesting!)

Kyle !

CIM, A.G Barr

After pondering the question of "What company I should use for my CIM coursework" I finally broke it down to several different companies... Microsoft, EA being a few, I finally realised that it had been screaming out on my blog page for weeks, "A.G BARR" of course!!!

As well as their quirky marketing tools, one of the main reasons for choosing A.G Barr was the diversity in the customer behaviours between their Scottish and English customers ( one of the modules looks at customer buying habits).

Although Barr's most popular drink, IRN BRU, quenches the thirst of so many Scottish people, it seems that  although a rise in sales in the English market, they still cant be as competitive in England as they are north of the border.

IRN BRU was once, if not still sold in some McDonalds in Scotland, and was the only Non-Coca-Cola product to be sold in their restaurants.

Apart from the Middle East, Scotland is the only other place where Coca-Cola is not the #1 selling soft drink, and yes you guessed it, the gingery taste we all so love (well not all of us, but a lot of us :P) IRN BRU is the top seller, Irn-Bru has dominated the Scottish market for over 100 years and is the #3 selling soft drink in the UK.

So yeah, that was my decision, it took me far too long too make but I got there in the end. The modules that I'll be completing are based upon time management (already failed that), Direct Marketing & Comms, Buyer Behaviour and conflict in the workforce (ALL BASED ON CUSTOMER BEHAVIOURS), although i wont be directly blogging about my actual coursework, any interesting facts, tips, skills I pick up on you will be sure too see in a future blog post.

A certain lack of marketing blogs?

A sort of off-topic blogpost right here, sort of related to marketing I guess, more off a focus on "Marketing Blogs".

After blogging for not very long, I've made very little progression, although personally I think my posts have became a bit more detailed, as well as more interesting posts. But the problem  is the lack of blogs similar to this one ... Where are they all?

I've stumbled across a few which you will be able to find on my profile in the "reading list" (http://www.blogger.com/profile/06663843431741506482) but other than the very few I've found, nothing at all is creeping up.

I've seen thousands of Fashion blog's and Lifestyle blog's which must be the "in" thing, so I don't know whether Marketing blogs, especially from a students perspective are a sort of "niche" market, with very few of us.

Why is that? Why are there so little marketing students blogging about such topics, it maybe seen as the norm in several years time because of the increasing number of large corporations that use blogs to promote/comment on their products, meaning that young marketers like myself will need the skills and knowledge to create/manage a successful blog.

So... What can I do to find more Marketing blogs, that is the question! Feel free to comment below on anyways to find similar blog's, any advice would be much appreciated :)

Well played microsoft, But did you do this on purpose?

The massive computer giants seriously messed up again, yes can you believe it? Just like Sony did with the release of their PS3, their main competitors, Microsoft, messed up big time with the initial announcement of their new 8th generation console the Xbox One.

Being a massive Xbox fan boy myself, I couldn't wait to see/hear about the next Xbox console, about how they were going to improve my gaming experience and "take my money" in a sense... but I don't think many predicted what Xbox had in store for us!

What they did to mess up

First of all, one of the most simplest most popular things people do with games cut out of the picture, borrowing games.  Yes, borrowing games, no pre-owned Xbox One games, no borrowing to friends and family, SERIOUSLY MICROSOFT? Personally I'm not a massive fan of the "selling your old games" malarkey because of the simple fact that when at uni, with a lot of time on my hands, I'll pick out an old Xbox game to spend hours of time on, whether it be a game released last month or last year, but Microsoft's "In-genius" plan to take trading games out of the equation is just stupid!

Now some witty employees at Sony saw this opportunity after the announcement of the  ridiculous feature from Microsoft and create a humorous mockery of their rivals at Microsoft, which became a very successful viral ad (13,246,760 views as off 23/06/2013) this can be seen below, so check it out!

The second mistake that Microsoft made with their next gen console was the online checking function, meaning that you would have to be connected to Xbox live on your new Xbox One console every 24  hours...  so what your saying Microsoft is that if I don't fancy playing my Xbox everyday something might happen to my live, seriously Microsoft what are you playing at?

My theory - A really devious PR Ploy

But really...were you playing at that? Did you actually plan to make these features set, or was it a marketing ploy? Microsoft decided not too include these features that were a talking point on twitter as well as across the rest of the world wide web.

Looking through the internet I see lots and lots of people blogging and writing about how "Microsoft have listened to their users" and how they've "came to their senses" ... but I really don't think that, not at all.

Xbox twitter announcement

Personally, and this is a very personal opinion which could just be some sort of delusionally piece of rubbish poster on just another blog, but I think the whole thing was a clever marketing and PR ploy put together by the guys at Microsoft.

Who was talking about the PS4 for the few weeks after the announcement of the Xbox One and its features? Apart from the odd few saying " oh I'm getting a PS4 now" because of how obserd Microsoft had been with their new console, not many, not many people at all. But when Microsoft decided to say on twitter and on their site "We've listened to your opinions and acted" they've created them selves a lot of publicity, an image of "listening to what their loyal customers want" and "creating what's best for the customer".

So, if my theory is correct, Microsoft announced on their twitter and their website showing their acknowledgement for their customers wants of "removing" the features of the new console, but didn't plan too even include those features. BUT don't take this as a fact, just my opinion, and I guess a strong opinion at that.

So if im right, did they pull it off?

It's hard to tell really, a lot of my close friends decided then and their that they were to get a PS4 because of the outragous plans from Microsoft, but when the changes were anounced, it got them thinking. Yes the pricing of the Xbox One is still a lot more than the Sony Playstation ( I think around £100 more), but from my personal experiences, Xbox live as a feature, the gaming community, the controller (its seriously so much better) and every other part of the Xbox are just so much better than the PS4!

Just going to end this blogpost how I started it.... Well played Microsoft, Well played

Xbox Website, showing how "Your Feedback Matters"

Details of how the features have changed

BARR's IRN BRU , "FANNY"

The famous IRN BRU can!

IRN BRU, a very well known soft drink from Scotland made by BARR's just seem to have the best television adverts known to man. Yes this may be a little bit bias being a massive fan of IRN BRU, the reason for this probables being my dad, who seems to drink 4 litres + a day (Ohh and he's Scottish). Studying Marketing and Advertising Management, I thought that this would be relevant to my degree (some how) & an interest of mine (or should I say I just have a healthy addiction too IRN BRU).

A whole line of fannys

One of the most recent IRN BRU adverts I've seen is the "Fanny" advert, which mixes Scottish humour with the revealing taste of their product. This ad involves a family that have just given birth to a baby girl, which the family decide in the end to name Fanny.

" Advertising can be used to ahieve a number of DRIP- based outcomes. It can be used to Diffrentiate and position position brands, it can be used to reinforce brand messages, and it can easily inform and even persuade audiences to think and behave about and around products, services, brands and organisations." (Chris Fill, 2009)

BARR created this advert very well, taking into account all aspects of DRIP "Diffrentiate, Remind/Reassure, Inform and Persaude". They differentiate through the use of the Scottish humour, reminded those of their product "IRN BRU", informed the public of how IRN BRU can "Calm your nerves" essentially (not an actual trait of IRN BRU realisticly) and persuade you to go out and buy their product! They use this humour in their other adverts, and is what differentiates them from the competitors such as coke. An advert like this also causes contraversy, which is a very good thing if you use the term "any publicity is good publicity", as although  some complaints are made, it gets it into the spotlight and gets more and more people onto the "FANNY" craze!!!

One downside I guess you could say about the IRN BRU adverts is the Scottish twist too it. Although the majority of people who have the advert broadcasted to them ( UK) will understand any slang used or the accent of the actors in the Ad's, not everyone would, me knowing this through personal experience (people not having a clue what my dad says lol), but other than that, BARR's, keep em coming!!!

BARR and their PR

Aswell as their ad campaign, BARR's also cleverly started a PR campaign to indirectly fight back at one of their main competitors, Coca-cola. Coca-Cola started the "share a coke" campaign several weeks back in the UK after it being succesful in other countries in the past. the share a coke campaign involves putting peoples names onto the labels of their coke bottles, trying to push people to go into the store and look through the shelves to find their name on a coke can/bottle, or to even give a coke to someone as a gift (obviously with that persons name on). BARR's saw an oppertunity, and cleverly took it with a very witty "comeback" at their competitors, with the release of the "FANNY" can as seen below. Why get a coke bottle with your name on it, when you can get the great taste of an IRN BRU can with fanny on it, ey?

Coca-Cola's "share a coke" campaign

IRN BRU Fanny can

But no, BARR's haven't stopped their fanny'en about there, they've even started a "Fanny of the week" which involves a person being picked each week to be the IRN BRU Fanny of the week, that will feature on their facebook page, talk about interacting with the public?! Fanny of the week involves members of the public emailing in a picture, your name, adress, date of birth to contact@agbarr.co.uk .... might just do that myself! (Found at http://www.irn-bru.co.uk/news/fanny-wee)

So whats my view on BARR's advertising and PR? Well where to I start, interaction, humour, promotion, competitiveness and an amazing product... what more could you ask for? Each advert I see just get's me bad laughing I cant help myself! All I have to say is keep at what your doing BARR, keep your ginger tasting like it does, and keep on being fanny's! As for the other soft drink manufactureres like the Coca-Cola company, what are you playing at? Yes you might have that chilled out image, but where is your sense of humor??

Ohh and if by any chance a member of the IRN BRU marketing department creep upon this blog post, just tell me where to sign up!

Exams are over!

One of the most stressful times for any student are exams/deadlines, and for many of us, they're over!

Just a small update for my blog, will be hoping to cover a lot of content over the summer as I will have a lot of spare time on my hands if I don't find a part time job, so hopefully I'll have a lot of updates, new subjects, as well as thing happening in the world of marketing that catch my eye!

Although all my university work is done for the year (unless I have to resit anything so fingers crossed!) I've registered to the CIM (Charted Institute Of Marketing) as an affilitate member (studying member) and will be completing  the introductory certificate to marketing over the course of summer, so updates on my progress the task as well as any interesting facts I pick up along the way will be found right here!

Kyle :)

Why revise when you can procrastinate!

Procrastinating is one off my biggest "hobbies" at university, although I have done a lot less since leaving college as I have found obviously there is a lot more work to do, as well as me paying £8500 in tuition fee's I can't be wasting all my time!

I find myself doing many different things, from cleaning my room when a coursework hand in is due, or watching countless episodes of TV programmes, which I would say is very enjoyable, and would recommend it to anyone who does not have revision or coursework to be done (oops!). Breaking Bad, Prison Break, Revolution, Family Guy, South Park, Game of Thrones and many other series', not mentioning the large array of movies that I've watched have been one of my major downfalls at university.

Even now, I have 3 exams all within then next 10 days, and I'm sat writing on my blogger, what's that all about?

 Anyhow, revision has finally started, and as you maybe able to tell its not going that well! Although I've made notes on nearly every topic for one of my exams I'm still struggling to get my head around it, and the other two....well don't even get me started!Truthfully, I'm not a revision kind of guy, I've always just turned up to the exam and hoped for the best, but at university its plain and simple, don't revise, don't pass, so there is my dilemma!

Anyway's a pretty pointless post, just me finding something else to do other than revision, but yeah, i problies most likely wont be making another decent post for the next week or so just until my exams are over, then my summer holidays will be here and I'll finally be able to get this blog up and running.

Digital Marketing, What's all the fuss about? - Advergaming

Another tool used in the digital marketing mix is "Advergaming". Knowing very little about this topic, i did a little bit of research just to find out the basis of what it is, what its about and some different examples to go along with it.

What is it?

Well using theory, a definition given by Baines et al, states:

"The use of video and online games to advertise a product, organisation or an idea, Advergames encourage repeat website traffic and reinforce brand loyalty."

This being a very simply and clear definition, there isn't really much to elaborate on what it is really. its simply a tool that combines gaming with advertising for a company to get a message across, as well as other means stated.

How it can be effective

In the past 10 years or so, gaming has became increasingly more popular throughout both genders and age groups, primarly you could say because of the introduction of the Nintendo Wii, which targeted its product at those who wern't particularly related too the "Hardcore gaming scene", people such as Mum's, small children, even grandparents! It set the mark for family gaming, allowing people of all ages to play games. And obviously adding the introduction of Web 2.0, and the accessibility of Broadband that the majority of the world have access too being a playing factor in advergaming.

So the market has increased incredibly, why is this important? Well for a communications tool such as Advergaming to work, there has to already be a structure in place so that Advergaming can successfully work for a company, thus its recent success.

Types of Advergaming 

Embeded in the game (Billboarding)

Advergaming can come in several forms, and can mix with other different digital marketing tools, such as virtual reality (which will be covered in another post....so stay tuned!). Advergaming sometimes can go unnoticed, yet still have an affect on us, as ( QUOTE ABOUT sdsd). An example of this could be a billboard in the latest Grand Theft Auto (GTA) game with a companies new product or their logo, although you may not think that this would not have an affect, the usual gamer (from my experience) would be that you will occasionally when bored, aimlessly drive around/walk around the streets of GTA, and pass these billboards over and over again, meaning that when in real life, you would recognise that product/brand, as it would be very familiar to yourself. These billboards can be static, dramatic or interactive.

Game created by the Brand (Monopolisation Occurs)

Another way that advergaming can be used, is by a company actually creating a game themselves, which would usually include the name of their brand in the game, or relate to it a significant amount. An example of this style of advergaming could be the Arcade game that was available to download from the Xbox 360 dashboard, named "Doritos Crash Course Challenge". This was a very popular game between me and friends when it first came out, as it was free, fun and had a competitive edge to it that just meant playing it repetitively... although I wasn't good at it at all. Anyhow, the game although with the name "Dorito" in, does not relate to the actual brand, but is a sort of spin of the popular TV show "Total Wipe Out" that involves different obstacle courses. Now personally I would not say that this game went out and made me buy Dorito;s, but it obviously did increase the awareness of their product to some degree, as the game was available on a huge scale (Around 30 million Xbox Live members), now this does not mean that everyone who downloaded the game would have went out and bought Doritos, not at all , but brand awareness is very important for any company, especially a large company, and as stated by Baines et al (2011), the main purpose of Advergaming is too encourage repeat website traffic and reinforce brand loyalty.

Utilizaion

A final way advergaming can be used is when a product is implemented in the game, and is actually used by the gamer. An example of this could be in a car racing game for instance, if you had to stop for petrol (Gasoline) then the type of petrol would be a certain brand, then when seeing this brand in real life, you would recognise it from when seeing it in the game. This method of Advergaming is very similar too billboarding  but personally I think it is a lot more affective as it involves the gamer, rather than just being a part of the background.

My Opinion

At the moment, I don't see Advergaming being utilised to its full potential at the moment, but I definitely think that more and more companies will start incorporating their products/brands into games, as it is a mass market is increasingly going because of the latest influences in different styles of gaming such as the Wii, Xbox kinect etc.

SO if for some reason your a big CEO of a company, and you have read my blog (extremely unlikeley) then by all means Start Advergaming!!! Oh, and if you do, you heard it here first (well probables not but I'd like to think that).

Next Blogging Topics

Although I will continue to cover the digital marketing tools, I will also obviously be talking about other things, such as exam prep for marketing students, or any students for that matter as well as other things in the world of marketing that I find interesting or would like an opinion about.

Feel free to leave feedback, tips for my next blog post or even topics you would like to find out about :)

Hope you enjoyed this post, and found out something you never knew, thanks!!

Digital Marketing, What's all the fuss about? - Social Web Marketing

Throughout my first year at university, the same words keep creeping up time and time again, "Digital Marketing." Obviously times are changing, technology is becoming more and more advanced every day and the majority of people have smart phones which give them access to social networking sites almost 24/7.

So I guess yeah, digital marketing will becoming the "norm" in the next few years to come, but the first thing I thought to myself was "what is it" I mean yeah I know about social networking sites and how companies are using them more through PR to keep in contact with consumers, but what else is it?

What it is

Digital marketing contains a whole number of things:

• Web email
•  Digital TV
• wireless media
• digital data about users.

And all of these different sections of digital marketing can be analysed thoroughly themselves. expanding those fields however, creates more "well known" types of digital marketing including:

•  Internet marketing,
•  Internet advertising,
•  Search marketing, 
• Email marketing, 
• Mobile marketing,
•  Viral marketing,
•  Online retailing, 
• Advergaming (Online games to advertise) 
•  Social web marketing. (Baines et al, 2011)

Why do companies need to use Digital Marketing?

Part 1- Social Web Marketing - Manage online reputations

The use of social web marketing can allow businesses to keep up to date with what their customers are talking about, their needs, their wants , and use that as an opportunity to create new ideas for products/services, or advertise existing product. Blogs are used more and more by people to review products created by companies, and users will look at the reviews and make a judgement there and then. (The Nielsen Company research shows: 70% of people trust online recommendations, from complete strangers). Books, such as "The New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott" which talks about how companies who are active user's on blogs can be involved with their customers, allowing them to comment on any problems that customers are having, or see a negative or positive side to their product, thus take into consideration any changes or features that they could adapt in their next model.

 "The old way of doing business is over, the time of brands dictating and advertising interrupting is now being overtaken by inter-active community-orientated engagement marketing." ( Ahonen & Moore,2005).

So what social media should companies use/interactive/look at? The majority of social networking sites can be seen in "The conversation Prism" image, taken from http://www.theconversationprism.com/. Some think that every company should be active on every single social media, but really, is that what a company should do? There are millions of users on your social networking sites such as Twitter & Facebook, 72 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute! But what about the not so well known sites, should companies be active on every single one. Personally I'd say a big fat NO! Why is that? Because yes, companies should be proactive with social media, but if they were to invest into every single social media platform available, a lot would be irrelevant for that company, a waste of money or really just a waste of time. So yeah, the main social media sites is it definite for any company, even a sole trader/partnership, small  enterprise business, especially as there is not cost at all, and it does not take a high-tech wizz kid to set up. And definitely keep track of Blogs, whether they're directed at your product/company directly, competitors, the same field of work or just generally related to you, what's the worse could happen!

Feel free to leave a comment on what you found interesting/liked about my first "proper" blog post, and all opinions are welcome,

Cheers guys :)

Kyle

Read your Degree

Some core text books & extra readings!

As any student will here time and time again, you "read your degree", and no matter how hard you try too deny this statement, its inevitable that you will have to do a lot of reading! I've found this out already, and I'm only in my first year, so surely it must be true? No matter what anyone say's, reading is key to gain knowledge for exams and coursework no matter what university you are studying at. Mentions off different books/journals that I've read or looked over which have helped me with my degree will be labelled books, I'll try to give a quick summary or review too, so yeah, check them out!

Enjoy :)

Just getting started!

Just an average first year marketing student from Durham, living in the booming city that is Leeds. Starting a blog has always been a thought of mine, especially after being menttioned several times by lectureres, and it obviously a growing trend in the digital marketing world. BUT I never knew how to really start. Searching for blogs with similar preferences to mine (with not that much luck), I thought what's the worst that could happen and decided to give it a go, so be nice!

Kyle