Improving Home Improvement
Vancouver is an interesting city when it comes to real estate and housing. Among the other provinces across Canada, housing prices in Vancouver has grown significantly over the past few years. Many people believe that the housing bubble has gotten so big it’s bound to pop. But time and time again, the market hasn’t seemed to phase buyers, investors, and developers, and market prices hold steady or increase further.
The rise in housing prices has affected Vancouverites as young adults move out of their parent’s homes. Developers in and around Vancouver are building more apartment townhouse complexes. In the surrounding districts, housing communities are beginning to pop up as well. All these factors play a significant role in its affect on the home improvement industry in Metro Vancouver.
Social Media Myopia
Many companies now, more than ever, have hopped on to the social media bandwagon. Some marketing agencies have even touted the benefits of having a brand presence in social networks such as Facebook or Twitter. But do they really provide added value to the brand and brand experience to the customer?
“Because it’s the thing to do” doesn’t mean they should do it. Brand building on social networks is definitely difficult yet interesting, and one that many companies should explore. I’m not denying that it should be at least be looked into but if it is done without a driving purpose such as “look how well our competitor is leveraging Facebook” or “we need to be the first movers on the social network” then the core business value is lost.
Businesses who do this usually spend more man hours trying to put out fires instead of building its brand. Social networks are an interesting bunch. Originally it was a way for people to connect with each other to share their lives with each other online.
And now businesses are allowed to establish pages to connect to their consumers. But other than this or that event, sale, or charity, are companies saying much to engage the attention of their audiences?
Moving Brands Hewlett-Packard
This past semester in Corporate Communications 2, students were asked to pick a company worth rebranding. I chose to rebrand Sears, but my classmate next to me chose HP. And when I came across this post from FFFFOUND.com, I knew I had to look into it.
In the case study of HP, Moving Brands briefly mentioned their strategy, identity, and experience involved with evolving the HP brand forward. To me, HP has become as relevant as the peripherals I might purchase for my desktop or printer and it says something to have Moving Brands solidify that fact in their study.
HP had lost its forward leaning culture after over 50 acquisitions in the past five years. The once iconic brand was deemed dull and lifeless by consumers and business customers alike.
Even HP’s very own Global Creative Director of Brand Strategy and Experience Design, Greg Johnson, hit the nail on the head when he mentions their customers thinking of HP as a commodity or hardware.
Galaxy Nexus Calling All
There is a big battle for smartphone supremacy happening and chances are you have already chosen a side. In most cases, you either own an iPhone or an Android phone. Compared to recent years, more and more Android devices are being sold versus iPhones with many thanks going to the manufacturers building devices to support the open source Android operating system.
Of course, in the smartphone infancy, things weren’t always this way. Much credit needs to be given to Steve Jobs and his vision of what a phone should be and do. And while the iPhone platform has stayed marginally the same, Android has flourished through developer and manufacturer support due to its open source nature. It’s current success reflects that.
However, I’m not here to point out which is the more superior device, even though we all know Android is the clear winner. I’m here to provide a perspective on Google’s recent marketing push from the geek space to mainstream space. When Google first started working closely with a manufacturer to begin build their Nexus line of smartphones, very little was done to market or even publicize their products outside of the Internet realm which left it targeting a small highly technical market of developers.
Tommy Hilfiger House Par-tay
I believe my lack of blogging is evidence enough of the busy schedule provided by GDMA this past semester, but I was able to, at times, squeeze a few minutes here and there to sit on the couch to watch the Canucks play. And during an intermission, I was exposed to a Tommy Hilfiger commercial.
Now I’m not a fan of Tommy Hilfiger, nor am I their target audience but it’s safe to say the Tommy Hilfiger brand is recognizable. The colours; red, white, and blue; used in the brand is a clear sign of who they are targeting. If you were to browse to the corporate pages of Tommy Hilfiger’s website, it won’t take much for you to discover their brand values and vision.
The brand celebrates the essence of Classical American Cool and provides a refreshing twist to the preppy fashion genre.
Tommy Hilfiger uses common elements shared with the American flag to create the brand connection. But does the company’s brand value extend itself to its current marketing campaign?