BOC Week 10: Famous Lemon Ad for Volkswagen

Your Attention Please!

Advertising requires effective pursuasion in order to captivate your target audience and ultimately sell a product.  In the famous lemon ad for Volkswagen, marketing campaigned on an idea of shock and awe.  It's almost like someone finally stood up during an ad meeting and exclaimed, "We need to get our audience's attention!"

Getting attention is in fact just what Volkswagen accomplished.  By displaying an image of the famous Volkswagen Beetle, with the word lemon underneath it in large type is a stunner.  This simple display of image and text captivates ones curiosity and the three columns of copy underneath beg to be read.

Reading the copy, you soon realize that the standard of craftsmanship involved in building

Week 6 EOC: Me Times Three

Gillette aftershave

Week 5 EOC: Health Care Reform

With only 15% of Americans not having insurance coverage at any time during the year, government reform of the health care industry is a push in the wrong direction. A whopping 84% of Americans are covered by health insurance each year, this clearly shows that the vast majority of our country are, in fact insured and are not in need of assistance in the way government reform.

With the largest number of uninsured Americans ranging from those between 25 and 34 years of age and younger than 18 years of age, the 15% of Americans that do not have insurance coverage begins to looks very different. These numbers bring a much more important issue to light in our countries suffering unemployment crisis and the greed that has led to an increase in American jobs being shipped overseas.

We’re looking at an age range of college graduates that simply cannot find jobs in order to obtain health insurance. Many of which decide to go back to school for graduate programs and even doctoral degrees in order to 1) delay student loan payments and 2) live off of their student loans because jobs are just not available in their chosen field.

With a small change of perspective, what's truly important is staring us right between the eyes.  The question was never about reforming health care, the question that remains is the health of our countries economy.  Until the focus of our true ailment is aligned, we will continue spinning our wheels toward a truly ill future.

Week 4 EOC: Advertising is Based on Happiness

What makes a happy consumer? Exceed my expectations and you'll win me over every time.

It's sad to say, but rarely are my expectations met or even exceeded as a consumer in today's market place. The last purchase the truly delighted me was during a recent vacation to Maui. The vacation condominium’s that we decided to stay in were in fact expensive; however every need and expectation was fulfilled by this amazing property.

Vacation is my escape from the everyday rat race, so I make a point to do it often and do it well. It was on vacation that I finally realized that my happiness or enjoyment of a trip hinges on whether my expectations are at the very least met - let alone exceeded. The destination could be (and has been) amongst the most beautiful places in the world, yet if my treatment as consumer falls short so does my happiness.

Order envy is the worst. I love to eat and even better, I love to eat out. But the absolute killer by far is when your food arrives and the food being served to the person next to you looks SO MUCH BETTER! That my friend is order envy. Some call it by other names, but I’m sure you know it as Buyers Remorse. For me, a recent home purchase falls directly into this category and kills me just a little bit every time I pull into the garage.

I know I should be grateful to have a home yadda yadda yadda, but there isn’t a day that goes by that I’m not enveloped with a feeling of bitterness and anger toward both myself and our ridiculously awful housing market. It is obvious that I couldn’t have picked a worse item to purchase and not be happy about, but there’s a lesson to be learned by every mistake and wisdom to be gained in every circumstance.

Week3 EOC: Internet Privacy vs Market Research

During the last five years, the internet has become an avalanche of information that continues to envelope more and more of our everyday lives. As we learn more about the internet and its users, we begin to understand the need for research in order to truly harness this powerful resource.

How do you define internet privacy?  

Internet privacy is the desire or mandate of personal privacy with respect to transactions or transmission of data via the Internet. It involves the exercise of control over the type or amount of information that persons reveal about themselves on the Internet and who may access such information. The term is often understood to mean universal Internet privacy, i.e. every user of the Internet possessing Internet privacy. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_privacy )

It’s baffling that the level of privacy provided to internet users is only as secure as their competency when it comes to navigating the web. “Although the Internet has dramatically increased the scale and speed at which such data are collected, legislators should modify existing laws for the Internet, rather than create new laws or a new category of laws. For example, laws similar to those governing faxes should govern e-mail, and Internet-privacy regulations should mirror privacy laws governing traditional direct marketers.” (http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/ncguest2.htm )

Is your personal information safe?

We have entered into a truly defining time in our worlds history.  Using the internet we now have the ability to search, sell and purchase virtually anything in the world.  This luxury perpetuates our innate desire for instant gratification but comes at a price.  "You'll be surprised to see what information others can find out about you. Without your knowledge and permission, most your personal records are published on Internet and are available to public. With your name or a phone number, anyone can pinpoint the house you live in and learn all kinds of detailed personal information you don't want strangers to know." (http://www.squidoo.com/personalInformation)

Although we can't stand the idea of someone or something tracking our personal information and online habits, these are the very things that make the internet such a powerful resource.  By monitoring a person's online activity and associating it with their personal information allow researchers to establish demographics.  These same demographics allow companies like Google, Microsoft and Mozilla the necessary information needed to build better internet experiences that feed our desire for instant access, ease of use and availability.

Week3 EOC: Making Money for Good

As Social Responsibility becomes the demand of the consumer, many For-Profit companies are racing to find their voice.   “American society appears to be undergoing a crisis in trust. Most of the major organizations that we depend upon, including governments of all types, corporations, our health care system, our financial institutions, and our schools all seem to be failing us.”

(http://www2.wholefoodsmarket.com/blogs/jmackey/2010/03/09/creating-the-high-trust-organization/ )

As the world around us grows increasingly wary of greedy CEOs and irresponsibly run organizations, there are some companies that are striving to achieve consumer trust through social responsibility.  

“… Companies like Whole Foods Market and Aveda, though not perfect, are showing that a genuine concern for social responsibility can attract a loyal customer base that is willing to pay a premium to know they are participating in a healthy eco(nomic)system. This leads to stronger than average profits from doing the right thing.”

(http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/the-odd-couple-social-responsibility-and-profit )

Looking toward 2011, the ideology of social responsibility will carry a bright banner on the horizon.  Many company organizations are beginning to reap the rewards of their efforts in relating to the customers that embody brand loyalty.  Going green has become one of the largest social responsibility efforts since 2008 and companies like General Electric and Aveda are leading the way.  “The company has made remarkable progress in energy conservation and the use of renewable energy and is currently the largest buyer of green energy in Minnesota and the 32nd largest purchaser in the US. And these strides have been made without compromising business performance. The company's sales have grown five times in 10 years.”

(http://www.csrwire.com/press_releases/13517-Aveda-Sets-Groundbreaking-Standard-in-Sustainability-for-Beauty-Industry )

EOC Week 2: DCG - Video Games

According to cnet reviews, as of October 1, 2010 (http://reviews.cnet.com/best-video-game-consoles/?tag=centerColumnArea1.0;buyAdvice) the 5 top-rated home and portable video game consoles are as follows (based on user reviews):

1.       ­ Xbox 360 Slim (black, 250GB)

2.       Nintendo Wii Summer 2010 Bundle - White

3.       Sony PlayStation 3 Slim (160GB)

4.       Nintendo DSi (blue)

5.       Sony PSP 3000 Ratchet and Clank Entertainment Pack (silver)

According to Market Watch.com (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/video-game-firms-aim-to-stretch-consoles-lifespan-2010-06-11) the  industry’s biggest players, Sony and Microsoft are making impressive progress in an effort to capture Nintendo Wii users.  These two video game conglomerates are developing new motion-control systems that will integrate into their current consoles which means longer life spans and hopefully increased revenue.

If we were to apply the BCG Growth-Share Matrix to the above listed top 5 video games, our matrix would read as follows:

Stars = Nintendo Wii

Stars are high-growth, high-share businesses or products. They often need heavy investments to finance their rapid growth. Eventually their growth will slow down, and they will turn into cash cows.

Cash Cows = Sony Playstation3

Cash cows are low-growth, high-share businesses or products. These established and successful SBUs need less investment to hold their market share. Thus, they produce a lot of cash that the company uses to pay its bills and to support other SBUs that need investment.

Question Marks = Xbox 360

Question marks are low-share business units in high-growth markets. They require a lot of cash to hold their share, let alone increase it. Management has to think hard about which question marks it should try to build into stars and which should be phased out.

Dogs = Nintendo DS & Sony PSP

Dogs are low-growth, low-share businesses and products. They may generate enough cash to maintain themselves but do not promise to be large sources of cash.

The major push as we head into 2011 is focused toward motion based gaming.  Nintendo is leading the industry in this regard with Sony Playstation and Microsofts Xbox 360 looking to take advantage of this growing market.  Sony Playstation has done an incredible job of creating brand loyalty with the introduction of increasing popular games and of course the integrated Blueray player in each console. 

Microsoft on the other hand has a bit more terrain to cover in an attempt to reclaim their previous position in the video game market.  The Nintendo DS and Sony PSP are consider the “dogs” in this regard as much of the video game technology is pushing toward much more of an interactive gaming experience.  While not mentioned in CNET's article, Apple's iPhone and Ipad are major contenders in the question mark category - as the potential for their gaming evolution continues to increase.  It's also important to mention the decline in PC gaming as dog-worthy when ranked among these top video game systems.