A New Kind of Family

When a couple gets married, one would think that the whole wedding revolves around the groom and bride. Think again. Weddings & Dogs makes sure that the pooch is catered to as well, during the festivities as well as when the couple is away on their honey-moon. With dog-sitting services during the wedding preparations, this event planning firm also provides a dog photographer so that the newlyweds have photographs with their beloved pooch, not to mention canine stylists that dress the dog to match the theme of the wedding in either a sleek tuxedo or a pretty bow. One must also not forget wedding favours and invitations that can also be designed around our furry friends.

Dogs have become such a great part of the family that human family members must also revolve their vacation plans around their pets. Hotels are changing policies to ensure that pet lovers can bring their four-legged friends into their hotel rooms. As for the worse, if the furry friend can’t come along for the trip, they can also stay at luxurious boarding facilities that cater to their every need.

With couples migrating away from giving birth to multiples, our generation has instead let dogs and other household pets to enter their hearts. They treat them as their babies, which allows for great business to be done in this industry.

Beautiful People Always Win

There are many dating services available, including Match.com, eHarmony, and the likes. Miss Travel takes the dating scene to a whole new level. This platform pairs “generous” AKA “rich” travelers with “attractive” people who want to travel but do not have the finances to do so. Miss Travel assumes that the generous travelers are male, and attractive travelers to be female: double standard much? However, that is a whole different issues to discuss. 

Generous travelers apparently don’t have any friends to discover the world with and need attractive women to accompany them? I’m pretty sure if you’re well-off, you’ll have a bunch of people swarming for your attention: why need to subscribe for this service? Additionally, why would a rich man want to pay for accommodation, food, shopping for a random stranger?

With the slogan ‘Who needs money, beautiful people travel free!’, Miss Travel reinforces the idea that only appearances matter. Pairing rich men with gorgeous women – how much more shallow can you be?! The world doesn’t need any more brainwashing; mass media has done enough to tell young girls that beauty is victor in comparison to wits.

These so called generous travelers are letting gold-diggers come into proximity…and mooch off of them? How absurd.

Underwear, underwear, choose your underwear!

I’ve written several posts about unusual products sold in vending machines. Beware: this post does not differ.

Selling from vending machines must be generating profit for their owners or why else would there be so many sales via these glass boxes? Weird. Anyhoo, back to underwear.

MeUndies offers a variety of underwear to buyers in vending machines. From thongs and panties to briefs and boxers, the company is planning to expand to airports, hotels and fitness centres. Lay-over flyers may actually benefit from fresh underwear during long-haul flights.

MeUndies is also an online business that, similarly to an online dating sight, asks survey questions to the respondents to determine their size, favourite color and style of underwear. The company then recommends different brands of underwear for you to choose from. For US16, a new pair of underwear will arrive at your doorstep. Not too bad for women who are embarrassed to buy that teensy tiny lingerie.

Free world, free pricing

Instead of a fixed pricing method, Air New Zealand has decided to allow flyers to bid for their seats..perhaps a bidding war? Prices used to be separated into different classes: first, business and coach. Now, the airline gives the particular seat (window, aisle, etc.) to the highest bidder. No information is stated as to where the pricing starts. This method of pricing has proven that the prices paid are actually HIGHER than those that would have normally been posted. The price bidding may also pull the competitive size of consumers where they want to ‘win’ the seat so bad that they cannot stop themselves for paying a higher price than they would have normally.

Similarly, a cafe bistro is trying out a new pricing model where consumers pay by the minute for the lengthy of stay at the bistro instead of purchasing beverages and food. The pay-what-you-want method means that consumers are receiving pastries and coffee for ‘free’ and only paying for a variable entrance fee. In order to prolong the stay of the consumer, the bistro has many board games, video games and a movie theatre. This may be perhaps because the owners want to create a ‘flow’ state where consumers lose track of all time, whereby the owners can rack up some $.

Pricing, which is one the important aspects of the marketing mix is undergoing much change. Marketers must beware to adapt to these ever-changing tactics.

Print to Digital

With the new trend of digital media, offline print documents are needing to transition towards digital forms. QR codes enabled this by providing a black and white markings for mobile devices to scan. Publishers are now able to provide this transition without the necessity of implementing QR codes. There is no longer the need to alter the design of an advertisement! Additionally, users no longer have the need to use their devices’ camera to scan the codes in order to receive the digital content.

This German product uses a printable conductive material that is invisible, let me repeat, INVISIBLE!  to the human eye, at least, but can be detected by mobile devices. Say hello to Touchcode. Touchcode replaces the need for QR codes. These black and white dots take away from an advertisement and take up much needed and expensive space from the ad. With the Touchcode app, users will be able to receive the information from the code by placing their device beside the printed material, much like how users are currently scanning QR codes. However, their competitive advantage lies in the fact that counterfeits will not be able to copy the codes for items such as event tickets. That way, only the legitimate buyers will have access to codes and therefore the tickets. Additionally, the conductive material can be printed on several types of media and surfaces such as: paper, carton and foil. If I had a super power, I’d like to be invisible as well.

First fish, now books?!

My last post was about selling fish from vending machines, and lo and behold, books are making their way into these glass rectangles. Not are books now available at more convenient locations, but consumers can pay whatever price they wish for the piece of literature they choose. That’s a whole new spin on one of the 4Ps: Pricing. Both eBay and Amazon bidding sites have changed the way marketers price their goods. The sites allow for the consumers to slowly increase price to reflect how much they would actually be willing to pay for the product. Several restaurants have also followed this trend by serving a 3-course meal where at the end of the dinner, clients are free to pay the amount of the perceived value of the meal. There seems to be advantages for this type of pricing as restaurant-goers are actually paying more than what the restaurant would have charged. However, the books sold by the vending machine are selling at the lowest monetary denomination accepted. Perhaps this pricing strategy is only accepted for certain products and not others…but all in all, would anyone be buying books from a vending machine?

Vending Machine…fish and chips: out with the chips and in with the fish!

Vending machines were synonymous with junk food. A frenzy of chips and chocolate bars galore. As consumers have now become more health-conscious, vending machines have taken a steep decline. But beware..RETRO! Vending machines have now come back fresher than ever…seriously. With fresh out-of-the-oven baguettes dispensers in France and now fishermen who sell their local catch 24/7 out of a vending machine, these machines have gotten a retake. Wary of the stench? These little packages are stamped with expiry date and get cleaned out periodically.

I suppose it is just a way to feed the consumer’s need of instant gratification. Flashback to a couple of years ago, craving chips would lead you to the vending machine. Craving some fresh or cooked seafood? The vending machine is here to save you. Just insert coin and key in the appropriate numbers. At least now instead of indulging in calories, you are ingesting omega-3.

Sex Sells (?)

What a nice picture of the Eiffel Tower in Paris….come again?! This ad, for La Vie en Rose, utilizes the marketing phenomenon of maturalism. With a bolder approach, the Eiffel Tower has turned from a symbol of romance and sparkling lights to one of sexy lingerie. The intricacies of the tower’s architecture reflects the delicate lace featured in La Vie en Rose’s collections, just as the boldness of the ad suggest the fearless aspect of a woman when she wears their lingerie…

Consumer Knows Best

 

In a world where consumers all have the same products, the need for uniqueness shines through. People want to be someone special, one-and-only. Look around you, everybody is holding the same phone, using the same computer. Why else would consumers buy so many cases for their phones? We do so to differentiate ourselves from the crowd. Scottish Whisky Blender has taken this to a whole new level. Consumers are now able to design and name their own unique whisky blend. To add to the uniqueness factor, the bottle is branded with a hand-written, personalized label. Take that mass-production!

 

Perhaps the New Toms

 

In a world where there is more and more accumulation of garbage, these  01M OneMoment shoes are 100% biodegradable. In addition, they come in handy for the shoe fashionista who has too many to store. Solution: fold them up in the teeny corner for everyday use.

Although the minimalist running shoe came to mind, these foldable shoes are definitely much more fashion forward. For those who may not be familiar, the minimalist running shoe was the one that looked like a cross between a flipper and toe socks: these funny looking shoes had slots to be fitted with toes!

The new OneMoment shoes also mould to the shape of your foot as you walk, so say goodbye to blisters! They also come with nonslip soles and ventilation for those hot summer days. Not to mention the 7 different colors for every day of the week.