Argentina Street Markets

I spent the past week in Buenos Aires, Argentina and examined the marketing principles applied by a variety of street vendors.  We spent much of the weekend at many artisan markets including La Recoleta, La Boca, and San Telmo.  These markets went on and on with hundreds of different vendors.  The products varied dramatically with everything from leather purses to steel crafted animals.  The majority of the stands that we looked at carried only home made products by the sellers themselves.  As I watched hundreds of artists try to make a living by receiving money for their hand crafted passions, I began to wonder what their pricing process was like.  How does one calculate a price that a consumer would pay when they believe that their work is priceless?  I started to put myself in the mind of one of these artisans, but tried to use my marketing knowledge to create the best results.  These street vendors must at some point consider the "Law of Demand".  This states that consumers purchase more products at a lower price than at a higher price.  They must also take into account their competitors, as I noticed that many of the products appeared similar throughout many different stands.  The artists should also consider their internal influences as they have the fixed costs of building rentals and staff, but have many variable costs as well, mainly raw materials.  Although the operations are small and may seem simple, the price that the vendor determines could make or break their career.  There is also a pricing battle with the consumer that comes into play.  One must know when to lower their price to make a sale  or when to stay put as to gain the largest profit.  When we tried to bargain with one purse salesman, he would barely decrease his price.  He ended up going down 10 Argentinian pesos, which was not enough for us to make a purchase.  Another tried to stay true to his price, as we attempted to get a 50 peso discount.  As we walked away, he conceded and ended up reducing the price and making a sale.  This complex method of pricing proves interesting, as I will never know which purse salesman made the better decision and ended up doing better. 

Party Promotion Positioning

This week, I would like to examine the profession of Club Promotion and specifically what marketing tactics are used in Chile.  One party promotion company that I have seen a lot in my short time here is "Saint Jueves".  They have elevated to become one of the top party promoters in Viña/Valpo and function by throwing one of their trademarked events in a different discoteca each week.  Saint Jueves has distinguished themselves with a large online presence and product quality to strategically position themselves in the mind of the consumer.  I believe that the type of positioning that they have utilized most is Attribute/Benefit Positioning, which has differentiated the company from competitors.  Each week, Saint Jueves, uses social media, and invites over 14,000 people to their event on Facebook.  Thus, it is evident, that they have put in much effort into creating a large client base to draw in consumers from.  When it comes to the specifics of one of their events, they offer a variety of services, that reveal the benefits to the potential customer.  This week, they celebrate their one year anniversary, and do so by providing free drinks, free food, free games, and free entertainment.  Each one being an attractive benefit that sets their company apart, as no other club promoter presents such enticing options.                  They have also worked to create a memorable logo to represent their brand and linger in the mind of the customer.  At every party, they offer their iconic "bucket", which carries a huge "Saint Jueves" sticker. This pushes the customer to identify and remember who is throwing the wild carrete that they are attending.  Another impressive tactic that I have noticed is the effort they put into making the intercambio feel important.  They call us "invitados especiales" and offer us special discounts.  This could be because they think we are fun or they know that we are more willing to spend more money on drinks.  Either way, many of their marketing tactics in party promotion have positioned themselves as a positive brand in my mind and the minds of many others.

The Culture of Fast Food Options

In this week's blogpost, I would like to examine the cultural influences on consumer behavior and how these influences differ in fast food in the United States versus Chile.  This past weekend, I ventured to the capital city of Santiago and observed different traits when it came to fast food restaurants.  I was walking with my friends down my hotel's street, looking for something to eat, when we noticed practically every restaurant that we walked by had almost the same exact menu.  Each served completos, chorillanas, churascos, and a few other Chilean dishes.  After we saw four of these identical menus on the same block, I began to wonder how they can each stay in business.  It seems like there is not much that sets each one apart.  I asked my Chilean mama about this and she explained that for fancy restaurants there is more variety, but for fast food, Chileans typically want to eat something that they are familiar with quickly and continue on with their day.  In the United States, fast food has branched off into infinite options.  There are fast sandwiches,  fast Chinese food, fast mexican food, fast  middle eastern food, as well as many other quick alternatives.  Restaurants in one region typically try to create a menu that promotes their individualism and sets them apart from the rest of the pack.  The Marketing Principles book defines culture as "a society's personality".  The United States personality is heavily influenced by immigration and the "melting pot" of the different ethnic groups.  The book continues on to explain the theory of acculturation and how immigrants in the United States assimilate into American culture, while still resisting a complete loss of their original culture.  This acculturation is evident in how foreign foods have been altered slightly by immigrants to make them more suitable for the American palate.  For example, American Chinese food remains different from the food actually served in China.  On the other hand, I believe the many immigrants in the U.S. have made Americans more adventurous eaters, as foreign foods have become more popular in recent years.  It was interesting to see that in Chile, although there are foreign restaurants, for the most part, Chilean fast food remains relatively Chilean.  These different consumer choices can definitely be attributed to the varying cultures of the two countries.    

The Social Responsibility of the Police

For this week's blog post, I have decided to examine the role of social responsibility in marketing.  The example that I have chosen is not a for-profit corporation though, but a government organization known as the PDI Chilean Police of Investigation.  The Chilean police recently released a new advertising campaign using poster images as their medium.  Here are some examples from the marketing campaign:
http://www.adeevee.com/2014/03/pdi-chilean-police-of-investigation-crew-woman-neighborhood-print/
This idea of police advertising interested me because I have never seen any example of it in the United States, and if the U.S. police departments were to release advertisements, I imagine they would appear very different than these ones.  Our Marketing Principles books explains Social Responsibility by saying, "Consumers today expect companies to act responsibly and to be good citizens(79)".  This makes me wonder why the Chilean police feels a need to release these commercials, as isn't it assumed that their officers act responsibly and are good citizens.  Maybe throughout Chilean history, there have been issues with officers neglecting to present this "socially responsible" image.  Getting to the specifics of the marketing campaign, I noticed quotations that begin with a negative cliche police lines (i.e. "we have them surrounded" or "the chase began and we failed"), but finish with a positive sentence (i.e. "…surrounded with security in their neighborhoods" and "…failed to escape our duty").  This is an attempt to take the old and traditional images of a police force and changing them with bright new ideas.  The colors and drawings on the posters also share this brightness and innocence.  It seems like the Chilean police forces are using marketing to change their brand within the minds of the youth, as there are many  children shown in these images.  This seems like a very different approach to marketing when compared with United States police forces.  Although I have never seen a U.S. Police Department poster, I imagine they would want to maintain their intimidating and controlling brand, instead of showing themselves in a friendlier light.  This interests me because despite the fact that the police forces have very similar jobs in the two distinct countries, they aim to present themselves in extremely different manners.  If police are expected to be the most "socially responsible" people of anyone, then why are they the ones that are concerned with their image.

Mazda's Polycentric Orientation Choices

This week, I chose to examine the principle of Polycentric Orientation, and how it affects the marketing decisions of companies when doing business in different countries.  The idea of Polycentric Orientation is when companies assume each country is its own unique market with its own unique set of values, cultures, and desires.  They utilize their knowledge about each country and make their marketing decisions accordingly.  On my way home from school today, I noticed a Mazda brand pickup, which I have never seen before in my life.  Even though Mazda is a popular car company in the United States, the Mazda BT-50 Pickup Truck has never been available in North America.  I began to wonder why this model was never offered in the United States, as pickup trucks are very popular there.  I think this decision can be attributed to the reputation that Mazda has in the US.  In my country, Mazda is usually viewed as more of a family/female car and I believe that this is why a pickup truck, which is a more masculine vehicle, has never been distributed.  In their American advertising campaigns, they stress fuel efficiency and safety, but in other parts of the world, they demonstrate their power capablities.  Somewhere along the line, Mazda's marketing team must have evaluated the United States and Chile using Polycentric Orientation, and viewed differences in the two markets.  Even though the company remains the same in the two countries, for some reason the brand resonates differently in the minds of the the two consumer groups.  The company marketing team must have made varying choices in their commercials and product designs to create a different brand image for each country group.   Thus, it is important to understand the specific ideals of each market group and use this information to make the most effective marketing decisions.