Marketing Blog #3

As we come into Feb, the NBA all star weekend is coming. NBA is using the all star weekend to work as a promotion and marketing method.

All the top NBA stars will crowd in LA this February. The all star game is more a show than regular games and people can vote for their favourite players who them want to play in the team. This can be considered as an reward for fans' support for the whole year and the voting process can be considered as a co-creation which will increase customer satisfaction. This shows that NBA is an value-driven organization because it pay attention to the long term relationship with customers and evolves all the time. But apparently it is not for free, people have to either buy tickets or buy TV passes to watch the whole NBA all star weekend. In this case, the game can be considered as an highly differentiated goods and can use value based pricing because people will value it more than regular games.

This is pretty much a routine for NBA and its fans, but NBA is still trying to do better. For example, on NBA.com, there still is some quick survey about how fans think about the all star weekend and the selected players. They are still doing marketing research about their customers and trying to improve their services and "product". Also those players in the all star game are role models or favourite players of millions of people. Even players not playing the game ( either injured cannot play or not selected) can be significantly influential. This can be a social factor of reference group that affect consumers purchasing behaviour. Those players are aspirational indirect reference group which can encourage more people to watch the game. And also, when they play the game, players will make athletic moves which will bring fans great excitement which can act as an affective influence that affect customers psychological needs.

Marketing Blog #2

I myself is a great NBA fan. Recently, I saw an advertisement on NBA.com. It is about BC salmon facts.

One of the BC salmon advertisements is two banking guys talking about that they received an email from an oversea people saying he has 1 billion in the bank and has some trouble in his country. If any one could lend him a grand to help him out of the trouble, he will give the person half of his money. And both of them received the email which means if both of them lend the guy a grand, that guy will give all his money to them.

This sounds like a silly story.
But the marketing strategies is cool!
The story behind this advertisment is that due to excessive salmon fish farming, the BC wild fish have decreased significantly. And protesters want BC government inquiry into the cause of the disastrous decline of the 2009 Fraser River sockeye salmon. And protesters hope that government can give complete disclosure of the disease data from salmon farms.

This advertisement is cognitive, affective and behavioural. First everyone see this advertisement will find it silly and will laugh at it. So it brings a feeling for people. Then when the words come up "Imagine if we believed everything we heard. The way we do about farmed salmon" makes people think about what we have heard and whether should we believe what we have heard which is cognitive. It also indicates that we should not believe everything about farmed salmon and should begin to think about it. So it is behavourial

I think this advertisement did not promote a product but promoting and idea. This is hard to identify the needs of "customer" because it is can not satisfy people's certain needs like a can of coke or other things. But it can still be explained by Maslow's needs theory. First of all, if we care about salmons, we can protect them and thus protect the nature. In return, the nature will protect us which satisfy our needs for safety. Secondly, if we care about salmons, it shows our love for salmon and the nature and give us a sense of belonging. Thirdly, if we care about salmons and respect the nature, we will be respected by other people, thus giving us a sense of esteem. Finally, if we save salmons, we save the nature which is also saving ourselves, helping us achieve self-actulization. But i can not explain the physiological need and according to Maslow, lower need has to be satisfied first. So hope i can get someone help me solve it.

Here is the link for it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86rCXZETiNY&playnext=1&list=PL7F6784AFAAD72F8B&index=69

Marketing Blog #1

Today when watching an NBA game, i saw an ads. from a Chinese brand Adivon.

It is a brand copying everything from Adidas. And its TV ads are gross and terrible.

Every Chinese is shamed of having one of its shoes. If a teenager wearing Adivon, he or she will 100% be laughed at.

Thus, i am thinking whats is their marketing purpose. Yes, now they are known by most of the chinese teenagers, but their image is negative. I think that they may want to make their brand known quickly by advertising it grossly and terriblely. That is the first step and they have done this. And their second step is to reverse their image by relating themselves to NBA teams. I think this is why it appeared at NBA courts. But i am not sure whether their marketing strategy is right or appropriate.

As i further researched, Adivon is actually backed up by a German Company. On the company's web page, it says they give priority to science and technology and keeping innovation. But in relaty, its design is ugly and our of fashion. The only strategy they are following is simply copying.

First blog for marketing

First blog!!

Pressure or no pressure?

My final is coming quickly and like a flood. Even though, I do not feel any stress as before. I do not know whether this is good or bad. I want to be stressed and really work hard, but I can not sense any feeling of stress. I am searching for the thing that I like. But I think that I have not found it yet. It is really painful to live in a house without any one to talk to. My roommate is a weird Chinese student. He never comes out when i am at the public area and never actively talk to others. I think we should understand each other more. Hope everything will be better!

Insight into China

These pictures tell you more about China!

New policy for Chinese TV broadcasting

A new policy has been put into effect. Chinese TV host can no longer use abbreviations in their broadcasting. Some word like NBA, USA, SUV and so on can no longer exist. If it is nessary to use abbreviations, Chinese translations must follow them. What a stupid policy. I don't get what the heck are those officials doing. Why do they ban those abbreviations.

Using abbreviations is for the convenience of audience and hosts. Once they are banned, i believe thousands of mistakes will be made. Maybe the excutive of CCTV( China Central Televsion) is afraid that these English items will gradually damage Chinese culture. But i don't think that Chinese culture is so fragile. On the other hand, those English items facilitate the internationalization of China, and make Chinese citizens civilized. I hope CCTV can give a good explanation to the world. What a dumb policy!