An homage to Anita Roddick

"I hate the beauty business. It is a monster industry selling unattainable dreams. It lies. It cheats. It exploits women." These are the first few lines of the book Body and Soul: Profits with Principles - The amazing story of Anita Roddick and The Body Shop by Anita Roddick.

In the book she writes, "What is beauty? I believe beauty is about vivaciousness and energy and commitment and self-esteem, rather than some ideal arrangements of limbs or facial features as celebrated in fashion magazines and beauty pageants.....In my view the cosmetic industry should be promoting health and wellbeing; instead it hypes an outdated notion of glamour and sells false hopes and fantasy."

Anita Roddick has created a very large awe-inspiring company and brand from very humble beginings. She started The Body Shop in 1976 using natural ingredients in plastic bottles used by hospitals to collect urine samples because they were the cheapest available. Her shop was sandwiched between two undertakers who did not see the humor of her store name next to theirs. And the trademark green walls were used because that was the only color that would cover the mold.

But it is not these anecdoctal factors that helped the brand. It was her pursuit towards making the brand and her life stand for important things that mattered to her. Her belief was the business could be conducted with love and the power of business could be used for good. From speaking up against animal testing to aiding trade and importing ingredients from under-developed and developing nations, Anita Roddick used her life and her company to do good. And the customers responded. In 30 years The Body Shop has grown from a single outfit to a $1.86 billion company without using elaborate marketing campaigns or multi million dollar ad budgets and research. Instead they pushed the brand forward with posters like the famous Barbie one targeted at the "real" women and womens body image issues.

Hats off to a brilliant woman, entrepreneur, activist and marketer. We need more people with that kind of passion.

Old Navy Flirt Ad causing a commotion

someone recently forwarded this message to me - i am going to copy the message verbatim and wanted your opinion as to what you think of the commercial.

I recently viewed a disturbing Old Navy advertisement on TV promotingone of their new lines of jeans called the Flirt. The lyrics to thesong playing in the ad suggest that when a woman "says no, and no again," this is part of the process of flirting. This conveyance isvery disturbing to me as a professional who has spent years working toimprove communication regarding consent in the dating situation.It is imperative that we educate our students & the public, both maleand female, that when a woman says no it means NO. It's not a playfulexchange that is meaningless and can be ignored, but a declaration of her intent that must be honored. This advertisement goes against abelief system that we as sexual assault prevention professionals havebeen working hard to correct. I would encourage anyone who isinterested to send an e-mail to Old Navy expressing similar concerns about this advertising campaign. Although perhaps meant to be cute and"just" flirtatious, the ad has a very damaging message that should notbe promoted.Here's the link to view the ad: www.oldnavy.com
Here's an address to voice your concerns: custserv@oldnavy.com
Anamarie
Chair, Sexual Assault Prevention Team

When you see the ad - do you think the issues raised by Anamarie are justified?
If yes, why? If not, why not?
What was your reaction when you saw the ad towards the product?

first sightings

wow, i've really enjoyed reading the blogs and reading some very interesting opinions from a great batch of students. lets continue to keep it up!

i was a bit nervous when the class started off on tuesday, because everyone looked so sleepy, it was early morning and i wanted to get everyone charged up about advertising and marketing. advertising is such an exciting world - of brands and models and great stories and entertaining commercials. its hard to stay bored with a subject like that.

and once we started discussing brands especially in the retail world - the class perked up and we saw a great stream of ideas - with some strong opinions going back and forth. we analyzed what companies were doing or had done, some strokes of brilliance and some great guffaws. and some potentials - where the jury was still undecided. sometimes its nice to sit back and observe the initiatives taken by companies and see how the consumers will react.

for this class, one of the initiatives we've decided to observe from the sidelines is the introduction of the vera wang collection at kohls. it all started when one student brought up the topic and suddenly everyone was discussing the positives and negatives - check out the blogs in my links to read more about what the students think!

i'm excited at the idea of watching how two sets of consumers are going to react to the vera wang line at kohls - first i want to see how does vera wang manage not to alienate her current core customer base - of potential brides who love her wedding gowns! and next i want to see how the average american customer reacts to the vera wang brand name in the store.

some students thought the average kohls customer has heard of the vera wang brand - and some students disagreed. i tend to believe most of them are unaware of the brand or at least the importance of the brand and what it stands for or signifies. brand recognition is just that! mere recognition and should not be mistaken for the customer understanding the vera wang brand identity.

Hello Class and Welcome to Blogging!

As 10% of your grade, you need to create a professional blog in groups of 2. This blog needs to be updated once a week by any of the group member. The blog is a space for expressing your professional opinion on the various brands and marketing campaigns you see – whether on TV, print, on a billboard, shop signage, web banner, in theatre, on youtube, etc. The idea is to promote students to think beyond the traditional concept of books and lectures and explore the world of brands all around them. The members of the industry will be invited to read the blogs and comment on them creating a rich experience for the students to get feedback on their ideas and opinions.

Each group will create the blog on www.blogger.com and send the link to me via email at mjsanghv@uncg.edu. Your blog will then be listed on the main blog site – http://mktgprofessor.blogspot.com. The students are encouraged to promote their blogs on professional websites or forums, within the business community especially within the advertising and marketing circle, as well as within their circle of family and friends.

Steps for creating a Google account:

Go to http://mail.google.com and you will see a sign that says SIGN UP FOR GMAIL.

It takes you to a webpage where you can create an account. Just follow the steps from there on.

Steps for creating a blog:

Once you have a gmail/ google account, go to http://www.blogger.com
On that page you have the options of
Taking a quick tour of the website and it will explain – what blogs are, how to publish, get feedback, go mobile, etc.
You also have the option on that page to create a blog in 3 simple steps.
i. Create an account (this is where you use your gmail/ google account)
ii. Name your blog
iii. Choose your template.

Once you have created a blog – go ahead and post an entry. Please no one-two liners – A thoughtful paragraph or two on topics related to advertising, marketing and brands.