Blog #6: An Olympiads Marketing Prowess

Because the Olympics only come around once every four years, it’s the perfect excuse for people to come together to rally around not only their country, but also their favorite sports and Olympians. The Olympics are always seen as a huge marketing coup to companies, with commercials popping up every Olympic season stating that a company is a proud sponsor of the US Olympic team. Examples of some companies that support the Olympics are Coca Cola, GE, McDonalds, Panasonic, and Visa (watch Visa Olympics ad here). The Olympics are used as a tool to market in many ways, with Olympic athletes become sponsors of brands. These athletes get paid to wear a brand’s apparel in public, which has proven to be a very effective form of marketing. When an ordinary person sees an Olympic athlete wearing a North Face jacket as they stand on the podium to accept their Olympic medal, this person gets the brilliant idea that if they wear the same jacket, they will have the same skiing abilities.

At this year’s Olympics, Mikaela Shiffrin, an 18 year old from Vail California, won the gold medal in women’s slalom, becoming the first American to win the event in 42 years.  After a costly stumble in her second run, Shiffrin and her coach were sure she had ruined her chances of even placing. But her balance and speed were enough to make up for lost time and she won by .53 of a second over her childhood idol, Austrian Marlies Schild.

Recently, I stumbled upon a USA Today article in the Burlington Free Press that discussed the future marketing prowess of Shiffrin as compared to Lindsey Vonn, another big name in the ski sport. Being so successful in her field at such a young age will definitely have its perks, but none bigger than the potential of $1 million a year in new marketing opportunities.

Being 11 years younger than Vonn, Shiffrin has the potential to compete in more Olympics in her future. When looking for a new face of the Games, many doubt an Alpine skier has the required name recognition, but if there ever were to be one, Shiffrin would be a contender. Its very appealing to companies that Shiffrin has so many years ahead of her in the sport and could represent their brand with longevity. Peter Carlisle, who is the head of the Octagon’s Olympic division, says that people should expect Shiffrin to land at least one or two partnerships after her performance at the 2014 Games in Sochi, being either an apparel or electronics deal. Carlisle also feels that his job has become easier because he no longer has to work as hard to convince companies that they can market an alpine skier for the duration of 10 years.

This article states that the largest obstacle in the way of Shiffrin becoming the face of the Olympics is TV presence. Mike Jaquet, who is the chief marketing officer of the US Ski and Snowboard Association, feels that it is impossible for Shiffrin to stay relevant among her fellow Olympiads because she competes in Europe for most of the year. These events are not televised, and Jaquet feels that if you’re not on TV, you aren’t considered a sport in America. Recently, however, the US Ski Federation made a big investment likely to change this. With the acquisition of the domestic television rights for the next three world championships, fans will be able to watch Shiffrin compete in her event which will be aired on NBC or NBC Sports Network. This is a big coup for the sport because fans can watch these athletes compete on a regular basis, instead of catching up with them every four years at the Olympic Games. With Shiffrin’s young age and athletic ability as a slalom skier, she is a marketer’s dream in the sport. Read the article here.   

Blog #5: Marketing Towards Millennials

When my mom emailed a link to an article from the ABA Banking Journal a few weeks ago, I rolled my eyes and planned on skimming it so I could tell my mom I read it. But as I began looking through the article, I realized that it would be great to discuss here on my blog. The article was entitled Millennials Upend Traditional Marketing and discussed how companies are increasingly having to change their marketing when targeting the millennial generation.

In my marketing class, we learned about the different tactics that companies use to market towards the three generational groups; the Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Millennials. When marketing towards Baby Boomers, the 78 million people born between 1946 and 1964, marketers are having to take into consideration that fact that these people are looking to save money as a result of the Great Recession. Even though Baby Boomers have been affected monetarily, they are still one of the wealthiest generations that the US has seen. They see themselves as youthful and, with no intention of slowing down, they purchase extravagant item such as cruises, luxurious mattresses, and medication said to retain youth.

Generation Xers, the 49 million people born between 1965 and 1976, are seen as much less materialistic than other generations. They prize experience over acquisition, and put family first. Being a skeptical generation, Xers often put lots of research into large purchases. While this is the most educated generation to date, they, like the Baby Boomers, face severe economic pressure. Due to the fact, however, that this generation is a family orientated generation, marketers consider this a prime target segment.

Millennials, the 83 million people born between 1977 and 2000, are the most financially affected generation postrecession. They are facing high unemployment, topped with high debt. The redeeming factor to this generation, however, is their fluency with technology. To market towards Millennials, companies find themselves becoming transparent through technology, engaging in two-way brand conversations.

The article that I read focused in on Millennials and how they are changing the way marketers think.  Due to the fact that Millennials are so in tune with social media, their interactions with companies, in terms of product feedback and suggestions, are accelerated. They expect a two-way relationship with the companies that they buy from, which is modernizing the ways companies market. Based on this article, Millennials are transforming the following five elements of marketing;

      1.     Reach – Millennials are engaging through social media and mobile devices much more than and previous generation. They use technology to search for promotions, look up info about products, and do price checks.

      2.     Relevance – the purchases Millennials make are influenced by other people more so than any other generation. They no longer trust the opinions of field experts and are more influenced by friends, family, and even strangers and celebrities.

     3.     Reputation – Millennials are beginning to relate to products on a more personal level, saying that they want a brand to represent themselves, and say something about who they are.

     4.     Relation – Millennials are looking to companies to establish a personal relationship with them individually or in small groups in order to establish brand loyalty.

     5.     Referral – Millennials are much more likely than any other generation to share their opinions about products on social networks.

Read the article here. 

Blog #4: Marketing to Sell A School

I can remember getting my first piece of mail from Saint Mike’s during my sophomore year of high school. Looking back, it should have come as no surprise to me that Saint Mike’s was the first school I heard from because, not only am I a resident of Chittenden County, but my father is also an Alumnus of the school.

Dr. Sarah Kelly, who is the Vice President of Enrollment Management at Saint Mike’s, presented to my marketing class on Tuesday about the topic of Higher Education Marketing. I personally found this presentation to be very interesting.

During her presentation, Dr. Kelly discussed the different tactics that she uses to know which prospective students to reach out to during their high school years. Dr. Kelly gave a statistic that states that there are somewhere around 3 million students that plan on attending college after high school.  Dr. Kelly’s job is to narrow this number down to the average number of students in a given Saint Michael’s College freshman class, which is just over 500 students.

It seems like it should be pretty easy to cut the 3 million down to 500, but Dr. Kelly said that her job is becoming increasingly more difficult. There are many factors that are affecting change in the type of student Dr. Kelly has to target, some of which include the changing ethnicity of the American population and the changing average income for American families.

After listening to Dr. Kelly present during my marketing class, I began to reflect on my college search process more. From the beginning, I knew that I wanted to stay in New England, but not attend any of the schools in Vermont. I had my sights on Bentley University, and had been dreaming of attending since touring the school with my brother when I was in eighth grade.

In high school, I never planned on attending Saint Mike’s so I always overlooked the pamphlets and letters I received. The material I received from Bentley throughout high school made the college appear so glossy and almost intangible. Since this had been the stretch school I applied to, the material they sent me never made it seem like they really wanted me. However, with my admittance package, Bentley sent me a t-shirt. They intended for every student admitted to take a picture of themselves with this t-shirt on and post the picture to the Class of 2016 Facebook page. By doing so, Bentley thought that it would give a sense of community to the class because you had all just been admitted and received this pretty awesome free t-shirt. This is a good marketing strategy when you think about it because students will wear these shirts and want to brag about how great they think the school is to anyone who will listen. As I’ve learned in class, word-of-mouth marketing is one of the most successful types. 

Applying to schools as a transfer student is a completely different process than the first time around, mainly because you know exactly what you want and don’t want in a college. After I had shown interest in transferring to Saint Mike’s and started receiving their material all over again, I saw it all in a new light. Every letter and pamphlet I received from the school and every meeting I had with admissions made me feel like the school really and truly wanted me. And let me tell you, that is a pretty good feeling after coming from a school where you’re considered just another number. One of the largest factors in my decision to come to Saint Mike’s the second time around was the feeling of belonging that I got after every encounter with someone from the school. I would say that Dr. Sarah Kelly is very successful at her job because everything she did to reach out to me is one of the largest reasons why I chose to attend Saint Michael’s College.

Blog #3: More Than Just Marketing

The Super Bowl is one of the most watched sporting events on television each year. People who don’t even understand the concept of football are drawn to various Super Bowl parties for the social interactions, the food, that half-time show, and to analyze the countless commercials. 

The minds behind the commercials always use different tactics to draw the audience in and make them interested in whatever they’re selling or promoting. There’s always a mix of tearjerkers and sex appeal, but this year there was a large influence of American Pride.  This theme of American Pride was shown in a Chrysler commercial featuring Bob Dylan. It talks about the emphasis Americans have always placed on buying products that they know to be “Made in America”, and how Chrysler also values this characteristic in a product. The American pride theme was also evident in commercials for Coca Cola (with “America The Beautiful” being sung in the various languages present in the US population) and Budweiser (which told the story of a soldier’s homecoming and said that every soldier deserves a “Hero’s Welcome”).

By far, Chevrolet made my favorite commercial. It was entitled “Life”, and was not intended to promote any of their trucks. The commercial opens with a scene of a Western plain at dawn. Everything is peaceful with soft, slow music playing in the background. The camera then pans to a road with a truck winding its way through the plains. In the passenger seat of the truck is a somber looking woman who is leaning against the window watching the scenery pass by. The woman looks tired and worn out. She has short, choppy hair, and you get the impression that she is ill. Her husband looks focused on the road ahead of him while driving. While the sun is rising over the hills, the car continues to travel down the road. As the woman watches the sun rising, she slowly smiles, her eyes glistening with tears. She reaches over to rub her husbands arm and, as their hands meet, a smile spreads across his face. They aren’t even looking at each other, but you can feel the love between them. As the truck drives off into the distance, the words “This Tuesday is World Cancer Day” flash across the screen, followed by “Join Chevy and the American Cancer Society in celebrating survivors and those who support them on the road to recovery”.

To me, this was a very selfless commercial by Chevy. Instead of promoting their latest truck and bragging about all that it is capable of, Chevy made an ad that brings awareness to one of the most serious illnesses facing the world. Informing people that Tuesday is World Cancer Day, Chevy is shedding light on the fact there are people who have defeated Cancer and who deserve to celebrate their achievement. At the very end of the commercial, Chevrolet’s symbol and slogan flash across the screen as a way to sell their brand. But by creating an ad that promotes a Cancer awareness day, it portrays Chevy as a company that cares about more than just their bottom line. Watch the Commercial Here