Brand Infringement: Starbucks and Sambucks

Marketing ethics is a final level of an Integrated Marketing Communications, and it is defined as a value that controls the business practices in promoting products or services to consumers. Brand Infringement is an important part of an ethical behaviour for the business, and it occurs when a company creates a brand name or logo that are very similar to a popular brand, in order to gain popularity.

A coffee shop named Sambucks can be a great example of brand infringement. Starbucks is a very popular coffee shop all around the world, and when they discovered about Sambucks, Starbucks took an immediate action bysending the letter to Sambucks ordering to stop using the name. When the owner refused, they took the legal action, and the court ruled against Sambucks. The reasons were followed:

•  It might be confusing to Starbucks’ customers and potentially cause losses for Starbucks
•   Sambucks’ logo was somewhat similar to Starbucks’ logo

It is important for any businesses to understand the consequence of unethical matters and try to avoid them at all cost. Any businesses should not try to engage in this activity to generate more profit.

 

References:

Stossel, J. 2005. Starbucks vs. Sambucks. Retrieved from
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/GiveMeABreak/story?id=1390867

Ventre, L. 2016. Trademark Infringement. Retrieved from
http://www.lventre.com/tm_infring.html

Why are Traditional Media Channels (TV Commercials) dying?

There are number of reasons why Tradition Advertisement is dying. Firstly, the main trends for the consumers are less time spent watching TV and more time spent online. Furthermore, the consumers have a tendency to surf other channels during commercials; therefore, it is hard for the companies to get the attention that they desire.

Secondly, putting advertisements up on Traditional Media Channels can be extremely costly. For instance, the average popular TV programs pull in about $400,000 per 30-seconds spot, and moreover, it can beup to $3.5 millions for programs such as Super Bowl.

However, the main cause of this issue is due to its one-way conversation feature. The consumers want to be heard by the companies about their opinions. As discussed above, it is extremely hard for the companies to create TV commercials that are worth their time and money. Some TV commercials such as Old Spice and Coca-Cola are well thought and successful. Some recommendations can be taken from those commercials, and they are listed below:

• Humors are most used technique to make the commercial memorable
• It should be relatable to consumers
• Repetition can create memorable contents

References:

Olenski, S. 2012. What Makes a TV Commercial Memorable and Effective. Retrieved from

http://www.forbes.com/sites/marketshare/2012/10/19/what-makes-a-tv-commercial-memorable-and-effective/#4803aef81634

Wagner, N. 2016. How Much Does Television Advertising Really Cost? Retrieved from

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/much-television-advertising-really-cost-58718.html

Importance/Impacts of Social Media Marketing

Traditional Marketing has been known as one of the most effective and oldest marketing strategies; however, due to the recent development of technology, Social Media Marketing has come into place. As we all know, Facebook has 1.49 billion monthly active users worldwide, and itgenerates 4.5 billion likes daily, which means that it is a perfect platform for the companies to interact with their customers. Some of the benefits of Social Media Marketing are listed below:

• It can improve brand loyalty or gain brand recognitions
• Decrease Marketing Cost because Social Media Marketing is a lot cheaper than Traditional Marketing
•            It can result in higher conversion rates due to the tendency of Social Media to improve trust and credibility

The one of the great examples of the product that uses Social Media very effectively is Oreo Cookies. Oreo Cookies have won many digital marketing awards for their success in social media. As the picture below shows, Vine video was looped nearly 200,000 times, which means that they successfully increased brand recognition. However, the companies should know that successful Social Media campaigns do not directly affect their sales; therefore, it is important for them to keep building connections with their customers.

References:

DeMers, J. 2014. The Top Ten Benefits of Social Media Marketing. Retrieved from

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2014/08/11/the-top-10-benefits-of-social-media-marketing/#97045b22a4d2

Zeporia Digital Marketing. 2014. The Top 20 Facebook Statistic. Retrieved from 

https://zephoria.com/top-15-valuable-facebook-statistics/

Effectiveness of Super Bowl Social Media Campaign

There are several examples of the companies, which have produced successful Super Bowl social media campaigns. While TV commercial is the primary advertisement place for many companies, the successful companies have found the way to capitalize their products on social media as well. Although, Facebook and YouTube can be a good platform for the advertisement, Twitter takes the advantage of real-time advertisement by engaging the customers and increasing the traffic. Real-time marketing is defined as “the creation and execution of an instantaneous marketing message in response to an occurrence during a live event.”

For instance, Coca-Cola brought a positive atmosphere to the social media by using the hashtag, #MakeItHappy as the picture shown below. In order to improve the social media campaign, the companies should focus on the following tactics:

-          Increasing brand exposure by focusing on the products

-          Developing loyal fans by engaging in a personal manner

-          Enhancing brand image by offering some type of incentive such as coupons

It is important for the companies to understand that social media campaigns may not be directly linked to their sales; however, it can positively influence the brand image and increase the number of customers. 

BlackBerry for Survival

Before Apple and Google came up with their iPhone and Android devices, BlackBerry used to be the most popular devices among young users at its peak in 2008 with a value of $55 billion. Due to the introduction of iPhone by Apple, which was very innovative with no keyboards, BlackBerry's shares started to drop as well as their number of users. BlackBerry had 80,000,000 users on 2012, but by 2015, it decreased by 70%. I believe that BlackBerry needs serious rejuvenation of its brand image. 

In order to increase their brand equity, BlackBerry has to increase its financial value, stock market value, revenue premium, and customer values.It is not easy to upsurge their values instantly; however, it is critical to survive in the fast-changing technology industry. I believe BlackBerry should take following actions:

• Develop innovative products
• Attract new customers from various region, not only focus on North America
• Improve their customer service 
• Utilize social media for promotion

There are several ways that BlackBerry can rejuvenate and manage their brand image positively, so it is important for them to take actions as soon as possible for survival.