This movie starts with the idea that a family comprising of parents along with their two children shifting to a new town. This family belonged to a high SEC and settled in a town where mostly people belonging to higher SEC were residing. They behave as if they are a real family but in reality, they are marketing people who settled in a town in order to promote different upscale products and services which were provided to them by their company. Each member of the family was a corporate employee, hired on a contract to market high end products to different people in their social group.This is the reason, why the family members were very social and had an art of making a number of friends very quickly.
The result of this family was presented to them on regular basis; this was in terms of the unit sales of the products which they were marketing in that town. As quoted in the move, a concept of Stealth Marketing has been used. This concept states that different products and services are marketed to the consumers but they are unaware of the fact that they are being marketed. This is exactly what was happening in the move.Steve (father) was very fond of playing golf; he made his friends believe that he can play golf very well because of the golf club which he owns.
Apart from this he even marketed a number of other gadgets including his car, Audi. Similarly, his wife Kate; used to show off with her jewelry, clothing, beauty related products, etc; their son Mike promoted different gaming gadgets and their daughter promoted different accessories and make-up items which could be promoted to the girls of her age. The entire family was promoting the products in a very natural way. They were promoting an attitude and a lifestyle.If people liked it, they asked for more information or to gain more attention they used to tell themselves a little about the products. They wanted to arouse a killer instinct in the consumers, i.
e. whatever the consumers will want to buy, they will do anything to purchase it. They had become more of trend setters and opinion leaders in their community. They also wanted to generate a ripple effect, i. e.
they wanted people to talk more about the brands so it generates a positive word of mouth and in turn increase the sales of the brand. Apart from this, Product Placement was also used in this movie.There were a number of brand about which the characters in the movie did not talk about but they were visible in the movie. This included the Ethan Allen carrier, Lacoste pullovers, Dell laptop, Krups coffee maker, etc. These brands were used in the movie to motivate viewers to purchase them as celebrities were using these products.
The consumers today are bombarded with marketing information. They do not really trust what the company or the sales people say about their brand; keeping this in mind the marketing community is always thinking of new ideas to promote their brand.Addressing to this need a new concept was shown in the movie that if the people from the own social group of the consumers talk good about the brand, definitely it will encourage them to purchase it. E.
g. when Steve was promoting the gold clubs, his friends trusted him but if the same thing would have been said by a sales person they would not have believed him/her to the same extent. The way of marketing shown in this movie was ethical because they were just showing an attitude and a lifestyle.They did not force anyone to purchase what they were using; it was the discretion of the people in their social group to purchase what they had seen this family using. Through the usage of the products they wanted to change the perception of the consumers towards these brands.
It was just a match between the products and people by showing them that it can even suit their personality and lifestyle. Some incidences in the movie like their neighbor, Larry, committed suicide because he was unable to pay the bills of the high end products which he had purchased after seeing Steve use them.It was again his own decision, Steve did not force him to buy them, if he was not able to afford them so he should not have purchased in the first place. This also does not make this method of promotion unethical because it is the marketers work to creatively promote their offerings and the decision lies in the hands of the consumers.
2. Identify which activities that they did for marketing could have done via interactive/social marketing and achieved better results? The marketing of the products/services in this movie was carried out by showing the consumers it’s actually usage in their daily lives.Few of the activities which they used for some products; if marketed via the interactive/social media would have achieved better results included: • Safari travel agent: They mentioned during a dinner that Safari Tourists plan the vacations very well. For a service like travel agents, consumers require more information before they actually finalize it. This can be done with the help of an interactive website through which they will provide detailed information about their packages, service, contact them, etc.
They can also have a fan page on Facebook though which they will be able to create awareness about their service and answer any queries related to them. They can even collaborate with Google Adwords and get their ads placed on the websites which are related to travel and tourism. • Wataru Sushi: Kate showed the box of sushi to her friends that this particular brand is being served to them. Again for this a website, fan page on facebook, twitter account, collaboration with Google Adwords will prove to be helpful for this brand.
This is not a complex product, if even some tempting pictures will good descriptions are used on the interactive medium, it will motivate people to buy it. • HTC Phone: Mike asked someone to make their video outside their new house, at that time he took the name of the phone. This is a complex product; the consumers will want ample of information related to this phone. This information will be provided though the company website where each and every feature with 3D pictures of the phone are very important.Facebook page and Twitter will also be helpful. For technology related products blogs are also very important; the review of those people who have already used it hold importance.
• YSL Bags: The saloon owner highlighted that Kate was carrying YSL Handbag. As it is a high end product; along with all the other mediums stated above; for this brand behavioral targeting will also be helpful. The company will be able to target those females who are interested in high end fashion products, belong to a high SEC and fall in the specified target age group.This way they can be targeted with emails which will direct them to the new collection and even through the banner ads. 3. Explain how each of the activities that you identified would deliver better results and how they could be tracked/monitored? The interactive activities listed above include: • Interactive website: This will have all the information related to the product or service.
Along with this store locator, option of purchasing online, contact us tab and many other will be present through which the consumers will be able to get all the information which they want about a particular product or a service.The website can be tracked through online and offline methods but the online one which is Google analytics is relatively easier. This way the company will be able to know about the number of visitors, where the visitors are spending more time, from which country/city do they log on, in what range they are more interested, sale which is generated, etc. Then according to the preference of the consumers the website can be molded and the variety on which they spend relatively higher time can be targeted to them. • Facebook Page: This page will be helpful in creating awareness about the brand.
It should be made very interactive by posting up different statements, questions, variety, contests, etc though which there will be an engagement of the consumers with the brand. The queries of the consumers should also be answered very quickly. This can be tracked though the number of likes, the number of people who direct themselves to the company’s website and the number of people who actually take part in the conversation. • Twitter: This page will give out information about the company and any news related to it, be it new arrival, etc. This will give the consumers updated information.
It can be tracked though the number of replies received, posts and retweets; this will actually show the interest of people towards the brand which can be converted to purchase decision. • Google Adwords: Those people who are searching for some related product or service; Google can place the ad of that product on the webpage which they are currently visiting. There is a possibility that the visitors might click the ad as well. It can be tracked though the number of times the ad has been placed, the number of times it has been clicked and any impact which it has brought on the sales.
Blogs: It is very important for those products and services which are a bit complex to purchase. These blogs will make the decision making process easier. Make sure up to mark service or quality is provided to the consumers so that they post good things on the blogs. This can be tracked through the number of posts which the consumers make on different blogs. • Behavioral Targeting: Through this the correct profile of consumers for which is company is searching will be targeted with different banner ads, emails, etc. this can be monitored through the number of clicks which are made on the ads and the number of emails which are actually read.
