Music Choice in Commercials

This post is in response to the recent commercials I've been seeing that are making a sincere effort to keep up with the ever evolving and new music that is coming out in today's youthful society. The one company and brand I'm going to focus on is Adidas who has really stepped their game up against Nike and Jordan. Their last two newest commercials take one of the hottest songs in its particular genre (Higher Ground by TNGHT) and the other takes one of the hottest rappers in today's music landscape (A$AP Rocky). Both commercials have had rave reviews from the customer base, especially about the music itself. I wonder if the companies have hired younger marketing teams in order to find these strategies and project them in the right way.

Do you enjoy a commercial with a better soundtrack than those that have simpler choices? Why?

Response to Cody Crawford's blog...

Although social media is a great way to promote a product, in what ways would it be unsuccessful?

I think there are a couple negatives that could come from social media marketing. First is the idea over over advertising. Sometimes when a product or service is advertised too much a consumer can start to block it out and ignore the advertisements. This can cause the company a lot of money depending on where the advertisement is. This problem can be solved by choosing cheaper social media platforms, like Twitter, in which only consumers who are interested in the advertisements would see the offers. But then again, this wouldn't be a way to gain new customers. 

Another negative would be advertising to the wrong people. I know companies can pay for their tweets to be "promoted" on twitter and no matter if you follow the company's account or not, it shows up on your feed. But in my own experience, it is very ineffective because I don't think I've ever read one once I noticed it was a promoted tweet. Therefore, these companies could be wasting money with each of these. 

How could you make the consumer benefit from social media marketing with certain offers or other strategies?

Illegal Foreign Sport Jerseys

One topic I want to talk about that I want to connect with our classroom discussions about profit is the controversy over the market of illegal pro sport jerseys. It is cutting deeply into the pockets of authentic jersey producers and the companies and their lawyers, as well as the government is trying to stop this. I have seen multiple specials, specifically on ESPN about the illegal market. These illegal jerseys are considered replicas and are shipped out of China to US customers. These jerseys are almost identical to the real things sold by licensed vendors. The most affected sport is the NFL. In the video below, the CEO of the main jersey producer, Fanatics, says that counterfeiters are the biggest competitor to the authentic ones. I cannot lie, I didn't know this was an illegal purchase but I do have at least 6 NBA jerseys that I bought from China. It cost me about 25$ per jersey compared to over 80$ for the real thing so it fits my budget a little better.

Would you pass over an "almost-the-same-thing" product if it were cheaper even if it were hurting our US companies?

http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/8900519/nfl-us-government-score-record-bust-fake-jerseys

Response to Seany Cowles' blog

Sean Cowles wrote a blog on the techniques of marketing and compared them to decide which one was best. Sean brought up many different strategies and I think they all work in their own way depending on the category of product/service. At the end of his blog he asked the question "Which option that I just brought up do you think marketing teams focus the most attention on, and why?"

I think Sean mentioned a lot of very effective techniques that can be used and I think all of them can work with just about any type of product. When it comes down to it, I think the best way to gain new buyers of your product is through word of mouth advertisement. It is especially efficient for smaller businesses that have smaller budgets. Some key words that I consistently notice are used when conversating about products include reliable, quality, and effective. I think these come up the most because they are the most important when deciding between different choices of the same product. Everyone wants a product that will always work and will last a long time. So I think the best marketing technique is one that provides credibility to a product and makes consumers trust the brand. 

Have you seen the rise of any products through word of mouth marketing based on their reliability, did it overtake another product?

In response to Prof Johnson's blog

This post is in response to Prof Johnson's blog about facial recognition software and its use as a marketing tool and its privacy concerns. She asks multiple questions about our own experiences and its privacy concerns.

I can't say I've had any personal experience with it that I know of but I'm sure it has been and will be used. I'm very sure it is used for security purposes in certain situations or at least has been attempted. But when it comes to marketing and the argument of privacy, I'm not sure as to its application at the moment. I think that some sort of facial recognition programs can be installed over certain advertisements in situations like the mall. The recognition can be used to read reactions to certain ads. Then data can be compiled and analyzed to determine effectiveness and be able to make adjustments.

When it comes to privacy, I think many consumers may be uncomfortable with them being watched and studied in certain uncontrollable situations. But I don't think there's anything a consumer can do to avoid it. I know the technology is going to come soon and will be very common.

What ethical arguments could be brought up with this kind of technology is public settings?