Conscientious Marketing and PR Blog

Stormberg- Entrepreneur and one of Norways most read blogger Steinar J. Olsen, was on the 22nd of January declined a glass of water when flying SAS. The first ting he did after arriving at Gardermoen Airport Oslo was to blog about Scandinavian Airlines absent of consumer behaviour, after that he sent a message to his 4654 followers on Twitter, with a link to his blog. Olsens Twitter message was spread fast,  others in his Twitter- network sent it further, and so on and so on.

“SAS is relaunching service, and they can’t offer a glass og water when the ticket price is 740£”.

This was so harmful for SAS as a company that Scandinavian Airlines communication director Claus Sonberg, Sunday 24th of January had to answer Olsen on his accusations against SAS on Olsens Blog.

Bloggers and Twitterers with many followers and big networks gain equal power. It is obvious that this power can be used both positive and negative.

Marketing has changed a lot since social networks first began to see day light and became popular around 2007. “Word of mouth” marketing is getting more and more important. A friend of mine posted this on Twitter a couple of days ago “Happy about my first week working at Thon Hotels, great people, great hotel, great company”. What value do Thon Hotels have in this positive statement reaching 132 of his followers?

I would guess that the majority of his readers are like him, highly educated, committed and at the start of their carrier. In other words, potential future consumers and employees. Today’s consumers have more trust in friends and personal recommendations than marketers and advertisements.

Stormberg and Steinar J. Olsen, have understood the importance of marketing throgh social media and channels like Twitter, Facebook and blogs.

It is amassing how fast a trend spread, also among politicians. The President of the United States is using it, the Prime Minister in United Kingdom is using it, as well dozens of other politicians have also signed up to the social networking site that lets users answer (in 140 letters or fewer) the question: “What are you doing now?”

The Prime Minister of Norway Jens Stoltenberg just became a “tweeter”. The politicians are going new ways to keep/get in touch with the public. And understand that they have to be where the public are to gain votes. The Norwegian government election is every fourth year, and the next one is 14 September 2009. It is obvious that he is preparing.

I am going home to Norway for my Easter break today, and I am really looking forward to it For all you Norwegians friends that read my blog, hope to see you soon. And to all my other readers hope you all have a awesome and happy Easter!

What is fact and what is fiction?

In June 2005, Dove kicked off the second phase of the Campaign for Real Beauty with advertising featuring six real women with real bodies and real curves. These real women were not professional models and vary in size and shape. The result is a dialog between Dove and its consumers about the definition of beauty. But before Unilever committed to the controversial campaign, it secured evidence that the majority of their consumers would relate to it. “The real truth about beauty,” a global research report commissioned by Dove, reported that only two percent of women worldwide describe themselves as beautiful. Dove has now gained market share in all of its five major beauty categories, from bar soap, body wash, hair care to deodorant. The Campaign for Real Beauty accounted for almost one fifth of all advertising spend in 2004, despite the campaign only running from September that year.

Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty has caught the attention of women across Europe and has plugged the brand firmly into the trend away from stereotypes of female beauty and towards cosmetics and toiletries intended to enhance real women’s natural attributes. Dove released a thought-provoking mini-film, ,”Dove evolution” that got almost 5.5 million views on YouTube. The video, which lasts only one minute and fourteen seconds, is a photography view of how a plain-looking model becomes a sexy billboard face, thanks to an army of make-up artists and doctoring on Photoshop. The video, which ends with the comment, “No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted,” is part of Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty, which includes advertising, websites, billboards, real-world events and a charitable Self-Esteem Fund, according to Kathy O’Brien, Dove’s marketing director. The campaign video has been successful in “starting a dialogue about beauty that Dove is a part of,” says Berger. “It’s about more than hawking soap.” The Dove evolution advertisement become very known a couple of years ago. I have awful lot of respect for Dove and their campaign for “real beauty”, take a minute to watch their video, it is amassing. “No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted”.

Dove Evolution video

Dove have been tough, and have won a lot on being so. The Dove “Revolution”, changed advertising

As an answer to the Dove video, I came across this very funny “Slob Evolution” video on YouTube. This video sends a clear message “no one wants to look at ugly people”. Look at this.

The Slob Evolution video

Skittles launches an amazing social media campaign. Skittles have turned their homepage as a social media site. Yes, paste Skittles.com into your web browser and, after you fill in your birthday, then a Facebook or Twitter page shows. Skittles is also linked to You tube, you can share your thoughts and meaning about the product via chat rooms or just using Facebook.

All PR is good PR? It is new thinking and is an incredible big move for Skittles, they are making history within marketing and PR. It was Econsultancy that started the combination of social networks together with their web page, Skittles just did it better. The Econsultancy started it with everybody that displayed the word “Econsultanct” on their tweets.

Skittles commercial

Is this the next big thing? The firms that already did it have got huge publisity, but they do not have control over their own homepage anymore, and this could be a problem for them regarding bad publisity. Are they digging their own grave? This could result in a huge PR problem.

Green marketing refers to the process of selling products and/or services based on their environmental benefits. Such a product or service may be environmentally friendly in itself or produced and/or packaged in an environmentally friendly way.

But is it? Green marketing may not always be responsible, but can be a very powerful marketing strategy though when it’s done right. Issues surrounding environmental and ethical consumerism make news headlines on a daily basis, and are high on the agenda both for government and for business.Climate change, resource efficiency, corporate social responsibility – we all know the terms, but do you know what they mean for your business? Complying with policy and legislation is one thing but making positive changes for the good of your business and the environment is another. We are in a period the world is changing, and is has become trendy to be environment friendly, but I can not stop wonder if most of us really care about driving an environment friendly cars or use the same shopping bag over again and again etc. But it is of course important to give choices, and care about the future and environment is important, but it is shame if companies trick us into.

Eco/green marketing is in future, hopefully we are as well. watch the I Love Eco Dance and/or join

The I Love Eco Dance

The anticipation that “Sex and the City: The Movie” brings is clear, fans are ready to go watch Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte. But is the audience also ready to hear about new products and brands related to the famous TV show. The four girls are icons for girls/women around the world, and what they drink, eat, do and wear influence us.

Carrie and the rest of the gang in Sex and the City made products like Manolo Blahnik (Carries favorite shoe brand), Coco Chanel, Apple (Carries computer) among other brands popular/famous through the six seasons of the TV show. “Sex and City: The Movie” as well contains a high amount of product placements. Glacéau Vitamin water (on a poster and at fashion week) , Skyy Vodka, Louis Vuitton (Louise’s hand bag), Apple (Carries computer and Samatha’s Iphone), Starbucks (every where) are some of the many brands used in the film.

The executives of New Line Cinema seem to be clear about one thing. Only partnerships with companies and products that feel right for the show have been established. A lot of effort has been put towards introducing these brands in an organic way. Sex and the City would never use a bottled coca cola in their film or TV show. The advantage of the product placements have to effect both parties in a positive way.

It is interesting to see how the Manolo Blahnik store on Fifth Avenue in New York have become a tourist attraction.

Hi,

I am a Norwegian student living in the United Kingdom, studying MSc Marketing at Leeds Metropolitan University. In my optional module Public Relations and New Media I got the opportunity to create my own blog, which I will use to share thoughts and hopefully get an interesting discussion around themes of responsible marketing and PR. This is subjects I personally think is existing, and hopefully you will find my letters and views interesting. “When I took office, only high energy physicists had ever heard of what is called the Worldwide Web. Now even my cat has its own page” Quote Bill Clinton, 1996.

The world is getting smaller every day, and in my Conscientious to Marketing and PR Blog I will discuss ethics in Marketing and PR. I will also present my thoughts on communication methods and networking through Internet, and in what way this affects us, form us, help us, guide us and define us. The new way of living.

Welcome to my blog, I am looking forward to our discussion.

Best wishes Anette.