Hi-Tec Case Study

1. A unique selling proposition is a feature on a product not offered by competitors that gives it an edge in the marketplace.

2.  Hi-Tec's values are proud, honest, fun and hungry, as they want to deliver more than the competition, deliver on their promises, work creatively to provide solutions and a constant desire to improve products. They want to combine these values to put together a unique product and they want to do it differently than their competition.

3. For the junior market, they make the footwear durable with prices to attract parents. For outdoor sports, they use products with water repellent technologies and for specialist sports, they attach athletes to the products so that the brand is linked with achievement.

4. They are effective as they are hitting all the biggest forms of advertising, television, press advertisements, banner advertising and billboards. They are all suited to the audience they want, so they advertise during sports and relevant retailers, to get to the people who may want to. It's effective, but there's not a lot of detail to suggest exactly where the advertising is.

5. The benefits of the viral campaign are that the video has millions of views, as well as millions of people talking about it on Facebook and Twitter, as well as press coverage from many different media outlets such as The Sun and The Guardian. It also gave them a 10 times return on investment. The best way to build on this would be to do a sequel, with their next equipment, with the same people, which would give it a sense of continuity.

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Digital Communications Trends

McDonald's is the largest fast food restaurant in the world, serving 68 million customers daily in 119 countries around the world, they also have a lot in the way of digital communications. McDonald's is a heavy user of regular online advertising, such as banner ads, pop-ups and search ads. In March 2008, McDonald's used over 295 million ads on the internet. McDonald's is also big on Mobile Communications, making its website mobile friendly and an easy to use app that features a restaurant locator. McDonald's also has a presence on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and others for many countries. McDonalds has used Consumer Generated content before, in 2011, they offered a trip to Germany to a person who can the best video related to the McRib. It was to Germany because that's the only location where McDonald's serves the McRib year round. This year, McDonald's experimented in Viral Marketing, when they planted some seeds in the shape of the golden arches on a side of a road in California. It's illegal to remove because it's made out of the state flower.

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7 Main Types of Promotion

1.  Personal Selling


Avon is a company that has members of the public going door to door, selling merchandise. Upon each sale, the representative gets a commission. An advantage is the added personality, since the neighbourhood Avon seller is most likely a friend, and since they are not actually affiliated with the company, they will give you their honest opinion on how the products treat you. A disadvantage is the difficulty in finding new clients. People may not like the intrusion of a person trying to sell something in their home, they may find it rude.

2. Direct Marketing
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McDonalds sends direct mail coupons to homes that provide deals on their food. An advantage is that it can get people into your restaurant and more likely to buy more things. A disadvantage is that the vast majority of people perceive it as junk mail and throw it out and do not pay attention to it.

3. Advertising
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Advertising takes many forms, from TV spots, to magazine pages to billboards, it's the most well known form of promotion.An advantage is that it's the easiest type of promotion to get across, there are many different ways to get your message out there, you can also explain what your business is better. A disadvantage is that many people perceive ads as intrusive and annoying, and thus block them out at any chance they have.

4. Public Relations

Public Relations is the act of reaching out to third party sources and media ventures to represent themselves as a reputable company. An advantage is that you get to create a relationship with your customers, and how they represent themselves, and the types of activities and causes they support. A disadvantage is that it can be expensive and time consuming, and people may perceive it as disingenuous.

5. Sponsorship


An advantage of sponsorship is that your company and name could be seen by millions of people, and thus give your a large base of awareness. A disadvantage is that it can be really expensive, and if you advertise during a certain show or event, you may have to deal with the reputation given to you by that event or show.

6. Sales Promotion

A sales promotion is a a special short term technique to encourage customers to spend their money at the place of business. This can include contests like McDonald's Monopoly, Flyers, Special events etc. An advantage is that it can possibly provide a large short term boost to income, and it may retain many new customers. A disadvantage is that if it doesn't provide a new customer base, it could end up being very expensive.

7. Digital Communications
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Digital Communications is the act of using the internet, cell phone or digital device to promote the product. An advantage is that it's probably the best way currently to reach people, since a lot of people are using the internet. A disadvantage is that it's easy to rely only on digital, while ignoring the other areas.

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The Price is Not Right

Curry's Art Store Limited

Curry's is a chain of nine art supply stores based out of Toronto. They were ordered to pay $60,000 fines for their deceptive pricing practices. They advertised a Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price and a "Curry's" prices, but it was shown that they had never sold it at the Manufacturer's price, thus they were duping consumers into believing that they had saved money, when they never could have paid a higher price for the item at that store. Under the act, stores must sell a reasonable quantity of an item at its regular price before a sale price can be advertised. Along with the fines, Curry has to print notices in all its stores, ensure all future pricing complies and develop a program to ensure compliance.

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Example of Online Advertising

The Million Dollar Homepage was an idea created in 2005 by Alex Tew in order to raise money for his college tuition. He made $1,000,000 by selling 1,000,000 pixels of advertising on his website in less than five months. He sold every single pixel and spawned many imitators, like millionpennyhomepage.com, the pixelwars.com and milliondollargolfpage.com. This is an example of banner ads, as well as viral marketing, as there was a lot of word of mouth about it.

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Extension Strategies

1. Improving the quality of the product

Cottonelle not only improved the softness and satisfaction of the product, they also changed the entire brand image, creating an image of extreme elegance.

2. Converting non-users

Ford  has featured ads in which they let a person use a Ford vehicle for a week for free to see if they would like to use it.

3. New Flavours and Scents

While Kit Kat has released flavours like Chunky, Peanut Butter and White Chocolate in North America, they are a lot more adventurous in Japan where they have flavours like Cheese, Aloe Vera and Gold. As well, they have region specific flavours.

4. Improved Style

A&W Restaurants have updated their style of restaurant in order to keep up with trends and styles over the years.

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Product Life Cycles

Fad

Tamagotchi is the one of the original virtual pet games. Created in Japan in 1996, they were wildly popular in North America from 1997-1999. Tamagotchis are still around, but have not been as popular since then. I think they were popular, because a lot of children can't have pets, so this was something they could have to make them feel like they were taking care of something. Also, as a video game, children might have liked the challenge of taking care of an animal, and the fun of the other features. It's been theorized the downfall in popularity was due to the gameplay of taking care of the animal, as if the animal is ignored for six hours, it dies. That lead to schools banning the devices, due to distractions.

Long Lasting Product

Arm and Hammer Baking Soda has been sold since 1867. It's lasted so long because there's so many uses for it, as well as the fact that Baking Soda is such a simple product, that it's always been needed and always will be needed. You can't invent something to replace it as it's a product that's completely pure. Also, Arm and Hammer is a pretty well known and trusted brand name, and when people buy baking soda, they're going to go with the one they know the best.
Tech Device

The Playstation 2 was the sequel to Sony's first game console and is the best selling game console of all time selling 153 million as of November 2011, being released in 2001. While the Playstation 3 was released in 2006, new games are still being released and Sony won't quit support until they stop. It's lasted such a long time because they were the first to introduce online gaming, and secured game exclusives from the start. Over time, it became a pretty cheap option compared to all the other consoles, so that if someone needed a cheap entertainment option quickly, the Playstation 2 has you covered.

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