#mkt400

1. Life Experience Studying abroad is undoubtedly a very unique life experience, this experience is that you can not experience in your home country. I often think that studying abroad is not only science and technology, but also an important channel for understanding and integrating into different cultures. It is very important for students to form a complete outlook on life, world outlook and values. Modern social information has been very developed. You may feel in the media and the Internet that you can understand everything, you can imagine how to live abroad. But this imagination is absolutely different from you actually live abroad.  As we have seen numerous TV scenes in the story of love, but only we actually experienced love, we can appreciate the wonderful and helpless. Studying abroad life will greatly broaden your horizons. The real experience of multiculturalism can help you exercise the ability to think independently, cultivate frankly in the face of victory and failure mentality, and help you to more comprehensive understanding of human nature and society, but also let you more concerned about and love our country.

2. Language

Week 8 - Attitude & Attitude Change

In this week's lecture, we discussed consumer attitudes and the lengths that marketers will go to in order to change their attitudes. In particular, we went into depth in discussing the effectiveness of celebrity endorsements - do they really work? Does it always change the minds of the consumers? For the participation assignment that my group and I wrote this week, we talked about how effective David Beckham is as a brand ambassador to brands such as H&M, Armani, Adidas, and Samsung. I think that part of his appeal is due to the fact that he has a pretty good reputation in the public eye. For starters, he's very good looking and he has a beautiful wife (whom I have idolized since I was three). He hasn't been involved in any major, publicized legal conundrums, and he also is portrayed as a British soccer saviour. What's not to like?

I could go on forever about how much I love Posh and Becks, but this blog post is about another David: David "The Hoff" Hasselhoff. I got home after class and I set out to find an example of a celebrity endorsement that went totally awry, and I found this commercial. It's for Cumberland Farms, a chain of convenience stores in the U.S that also offers their own brand of snacks and drinks, like the iced coffee (or "Iced Hoffee) that Hasselhoff is promoting.

The ad is absolutely horrid, from the jingle to the fake beachy background (that has no connection to a Rhode Island-based company) to David Hasselhoff! But perhaps that was exactly what Cumberland Farms' marketing department was going for - as a result, sales for their #icedhoffee went up by 147% (Angel, 2013) I think that they were aiming to stimulate the affective component of attitudes; Cumberland Farms wanted to elicit an emotional response from consumers, and featuring a controversial, internationally-known D-lister like David Hasselhoff in their ads did just that. A normal person would think the ad's message wouldn't have a big impact because there is no match-up between Hasselhoff and Cumberland Farms - why would a celebrity like him endorse a store chain that is only available in the Eastern United States? In addition, what gives him credibility, or what makes him likeable after all the negative press he's received in the last few years?

This week in class, we discussed the effects of ads and consumers’ perception of them.

Funny enough, I found this recent article from The Globe and Mail about how scent marketing is a “projected billion dollar industry”, but also a big moral dilemma.

But I can totally see why - in theory, scent marketing seems like a really smart idea. It gives an augmented experience to the consumer that a 2D visual ad can’t compare to (unless, of course, there’s a scratch-&-sniff card on the ad somewhere). Using scent marketing, companies can establish that connection with consumers easier by relating their scents to past experiences, and by appealing to their emotions.

McDonalds, arguably one of the biggest fast food chain restaurants in the world suffered a huge social media disaster the digital world will not soon be forgetting.

McDonalds started a social media campaign on the micro-blogging site Twitter in order to promote their fresh harvest and positive relations with farmers.  The initial promoted hashtag McDonalds used on Twitter was #MeetTheFarmers.

The promoted social media campaign quickly went wrong when a member of the marketing team started to use a non-neutral hashtag; #McDStories. The use of this hashtag was as an attempt to further engage consumers on Twitter.

The issue with the #McDStories hashtag was the vagueness. Since the hashtag was so vague it opened up opportunities for consumers and competitors to exploit McDonald’s promoted message in any way they wanted.

Another mistake McDonalds made was not providing any directions on how to engage in using the promoted hashtag. Thus, the hashtag quickly became an outlet for consumers who had received negative experiences from McDonalds to share their stories.

Image By: (Gus, 2012)

McDonalds tried to start a new hashtag to quickly distance itself from the damaging one, but it was too late.  McDonalds learned a hard lesson that once something goes viral on the Internet it will spread like wild fire.

Image by: (Gus,2012)

The power of social media has become vital in the world of marketing. Although there were 72,788 Twitter mentions associated with McDonalds for the day of the hashtag promotion, only 2% were in relation to #McDStories (Gus, 2012).

In the end the lesson learned here is “a dissatisfied customer tells ten people. But…in the new age of social media, he or she has the tools to tell ten million” (Gillin, 2007).

 Image by: (BigStockPhoto.com)

What McDonalds Did Wrong:

Using such a vague hashtag and no explanation on what the hashtag’s purpose was

Stayed silent about the social media issue reinforced the stories told by consumers

What McDonalds Did Right:

Quickly removed the promoted hashtag

Stayed calm and tried to redirect consumer focus

What McDonalds Should Have Done:

Stay engaged with the consumers

Reach out to consumers for support

  Work Cited:

Gillin, P. (2007). The new influencers: A marketer's guide to the new social media. Sanger, CA: Quill

Driver Books/Word Dancer Press.

 Article:

Lubin, G. (2012, January 24). McDonald's Twitter Campaign Goes Horribly Wrong #McDStories.

Image:

Lubin, G. (2012, January 24). McDonald's Twitter Campaign Goes Horribly Wrong #McDStories. 

Article:

During class this week, we discussed the importance using social media marketing for businesses, and I think this video encapsulates the concept really well.

Taking advantage of the hot days in New York City, Evian promoted the use of the hashtag #evianbottleservice on Twitter for their followers to see. Eventually, enough consumers caused the hashtag to trend and Evian took to the streets to provide not just water… a bottle service. Complete with umbrellas, silver trays and smartly dressed staff.