Unilever AXE & Dove

Unilever is a multi-billion-dollar company that has been in business since the early 1880s. Their vision is to help people look good, feel good, and the get more out of life. Unilever sells over 400 different types of food and drink, personal care, and home care products combined, but only about 33 different types of brands are sold in the united states. Among those brands are Klondike, Lipton, Axe, Dove, and Persil. In 2016 Axe and Dove were among 13 personal care brands that produced over 1 billion euros, which is equivalent to just over 1.2 billion US dollars.

Axe was first introduced to the US in 2002 and in 2004 they launched a commercial that is geared towards how women are going to act towards you when using Axe body spray,  this video can be seen using the link below. The same year they launched this Dove launched a "Real Beauty Campaign" that celebrated women’s natural appearance. Very contradicting coming from the same company. Unilever received some backlash, but that didn't stop them from the way they introduced their axe detailer in 2010 with a commercial that aired on tv for a brief time. In this commercial Monica Blake a tennis player played by Jamie Presley from My Name is Earl talking about how people don't like to play with dirty equipment "balls". There are several innuendo referring to the men's testicles. They continued to receive backlash and in a 2012 case study conducted by Kellogg's school of management people asked, "How can the same company that launched the Dove campaign celebrating women’s natural appearance over media stereotypes be behind the arguably degrading depiction of females in ads for Axe"? The Dove's skin care Vice President response was "each Unilever's brand's advertising efforts are tailored to reflect the unique interest and needs of its audience". In laymen's terms women need to feel beautiful and men need to feel wanted by women. An article reads "they're trying to undo what they have done" referring to the 2017 launch of the #isitokayforguys campaign which focuses on the "REAL" problems guys are facing.

I don't know if Unilever is going to continue with their focuses towards men’s problems or if they will turn back to their "sexist" ads. It will be interesting to see.

First Axe Commercial

2017

Dirty Balls

Dove

Social Listening

Black Rifle Coffee Company is owned and operated by Veterans in Salt Lake City, UT, but offer online orders. Their coffee is like no other, they have named quite of few of  their coffees either after weapons or Military terminology, for example, they have a  Colombian Supremo roasted dark espresso called AK-47 and a Colombian dark roast coffee called V-TAC Berzerker blend, which was developed to complement V-Tac who makes high-quality gear for the Military personnel.

On Facebook, people are discussing how great their customer services is, the taste of their coffee, and what they stand for. Someone said that they received their order, but there was a slit in one of their coffee packaging's, so they called BRCC and she received a replacement at no extra cost within 2 days. The majority of the people are saying how good the coffee is and how before they never really drank it, but now they are avid consumers. People absolutely love the fact that this company is owned and operated by Veterans.

I for one have never seen anything on BRCC until my husband, who served in the Military told me about it. He found this place through other Military Facebook pages that he had joined. They do have a very nice website, but then again if you don't know about them, where would you know to look?

An Idea for them to get their name out there is to advertise on the radio, TV, maybe even billboards. I am not sure if they do now, but another idea would be to place flyers on or around the armory's and Military bases.

This company stand for so much more than your ordinary coffee shop. In my opinion, if they were known, then maybe just maybe people would purchase from them rather than the big corporate coffee companies.


                                             Meet the team of Black Rifle Coffee Company

Black Rifle Coffee Company

Facebook Page-BRCC

FoldiMate

FoldiMate is "building a home assistant robotics machine" that will fold your laundry in a matter of minutes. FoldiMate can fold about 20-40 articles of clothing in just 2-4 minutes. It has the capability of folding clothes from child size 5 to adults XXL,however; it is incapable of folding baby clothes, socks, underwear, sheets, and hoodies. Their ad introduces the FoldiMate with piles of laundry falling on a guy on the bed, a girl playing tea party, and three people watching a big foot ball game stating "don't let folding get in your way, meet FoldiMate, it folds, so you don't have to". This product is set to ship late 2019 and is estimating its cost about $980.00. The marketing issue I see is they focus more on the inconvenience of folding laundry rather than the ability of the machine. I feel they need to focus more on WHO will benefit from this product (i.e Single parents, families, busy family activities, etc.) rather than the inconvenience of folding clothes. I learned that it is very important to identify who you want to reach. For example, I personally would benefit greatly from this product because of my household size and our busy day to day obligations (full time employee & student, husband works approx 12-14 hours a day, 2 middle school students with after school activities, and sports on the weekends), but the bachelor neighbor wouldn't necessarily have the same amount of clothes each week because he is one and I am 4, so how does this machine really benefit him?

FoldiMate

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/12/this-robot-will-fold-your-laundry-in-2-to-4-minutes.html

Topic #2: Marketing In The News

Facebook plans to compete with top line brands like Google, Amazon, and Apple by "planning to sell a communication-focused tablet called Portal" that is focused on communication, video chatting, and connecting with people all over. They say that the wide angled lens is capable of facial recognition an associating individuals with their Facebook accounts.  Apparently this isn't Facebook's first attempt at competing with these companies with similar products, but consumers were pretty skeptical about allowing a Facebook driven device in their homes because of "security" concerns with the cameras' and listening devices. According to Cheddar who is a new video news reporting network that cover the most innovative products and technologies, Facebook is planning to sell this product if it launches for about $500 to start which is about twice the cost of an Amazon Echo Show, which is a standard Amazon Echo with a video screen capable of video chats. Facebook is all about getting people connected around the world. They are there to allow people to see what their friends and families are up to from a distance. Facebook has connected many people with "lost" family. A friend of mine who has never met her father was able to find, connect, and meet her dad for the first time. In a sense I don't really believe that Facebook needs any type of marketing strategy, because they're Facebook. Their name markets themselves. When people hear the name 'Facebook' they already know what you're talking about, what they could expect, and how to access. The product seems like it would be very beneficial, however; Apple has already come out with something called "FaceTime" which in a sense is identical to what Facebook is offering. Also, Facebook has messenger which through messenger you're able to video chat with people on Facebook, so I don't really see this product selling a significant amount because anyone with a computer, cell phone, or tablet already has the opportunity to video chat through the messenger app.

EXCLUSIVE: Facebook Dives into Home Device Market with Video Chat Product Named "Portal"

FACEBOOK REPORTEDLY WANTS TO STEAL THE HOME SPEAKER SHOW WITH A DEVICE OF ITS OWN

Topic #1: About Me

I am a current Accounting Technology student at Linn-Benton Community College. I am taking Principles of Marketing because it is a required course for the Accounting Technology program. While, I currently do not have a huge interest in marketing I hope that by the end of this term I will not only be interested in, but have a better understanding of what goes into marketing a business and the importance of marketing. I have a small idea of marketing, but not much. I do know that I have personally purchased items because of the way they were presented on the TV and I have been disappointed. I love to cook and enjoy finding different unique kitchen gadgets and when I saw "Cleaver Cutter", you know the cool scissor like cutter that has a blade and a small cutting board on it, well I was like "Oh my gosh, I need this", so I ordered one and lets just say I was extremely disappointed in the performance of it and how it is not as easy as they said or as it looks. The cutting board is too small, it tends to be difficult to cut more than one stock of celery, so I don't use it anymore and it sits in my drawer taking up space, but I am straying off topic. Outside of school I am passionate about cooking and trying new things in the kitchen. I love the reactions from my family when I put something new and tasty on the table.