A Review Of The G Shock Marketing Essay

G-shock,which has good shockproof and waterproof characteristics, is a well-known brand that belongs to Casio. According to Casio International (2009), ‘SHOCK’ means to combat and impact the shock and ‘G’ means the gravity tends to convey a kind of spirit which is “never give up” and “toughness”. In 1981,a Casio research personnel named Mr. Nikaido broke his watch which was a gift from his father as a prize for passing the college entrance examination. Therefore, he began to develop a shockproof watch (Casio, 2009) In 1983, the first G-shock came to the world. However, it did not sell well at first. After this low tide, he spend 25 years to create his own pop culture and also spawned a variety of styles of different series. G-shock has been created from a simple belief: The creation of a never smashed watch [Casio International 2009].

Today, G-SHOCK continues its pursuit of further innovation and creates all kinds of impossibilty.

The advertisement uses the background of a movie which is called Initial D. The content of this movie was from a Japan automobile race cartoon which attracted a considerable number of young people.

Theories

According to Hall et al (2008), marketing mix is a basic concept in marketing area, referring to the companies determine the best combination of controllable marketing factors according to customer needs and business marketing as well as companies goals. The main purpose of marketing is to meet the consumer needs. Given that consumers need a lot, it is necessary to meet consumer wants. The marketing mix makes from 4Ps–Price, Product, Promotion and Place which is said by Hall et al (2008), price is to control the marketing changes which is always changeable. Product is the key to meet people’s needs and it can control all the marketing system because product is the basic of marketing. Promotion is the company-to-product sales promotion activity in the community which has formed a pattern. From a view of developing, it is not only a simple seller to the buyer to provide information and advocacy to persuade behavior, but also including enterprise to the public and makes consumers to understand company principles. Place is also an important part in marketing. Choosing a good place needs to think of many factors, such as natural factors, business environment factors and infrastructure conditions. (Hall et al 2008) According to Hall (2008), market segmentation based on consumer demand for the enterprise was different from the whole market which was divided into different consumer groups process. According to Hall (2009) Market segmentation could be geographic, demographic, psychological and behavioral to analysis.

Aim

The aims of this report are divided by four parts. Firstly, the useful information from the advertisement such as color and character will be given in findings. Secondly, It is necessary to explain the market segmentation and market mix such as product, promotion and price about the advertisement in discussion sectio. Combining the findings and discussions to write conclusion is the third goal. Finally, the writer will give some suggestions into recommandations.

Findings

The latest advertising is composed of two posters, mainly to sell G-shock (G-700BD-1AV). Both the top of the posters have the shining name of the movie. In picture one, the superstar in Taiwan named Jay Chou sits in the car seat and looks to the distance. He wears a white T-shirt and a black G-Shock watch. The other one is the background in the midnight, Hong Kong’s superstar Edison Chen sits outside the car with the strong headlights. He wears a gray jacket and blue jeans. In addition, Edison is looking to the readers in the advertisement. This advertising shows two colors, sliver and black to the consumers.

Discussion

Marketing Mix

Marketing mix in the advertising will be fully revealed. It can be divided into four main parts which are product, price place and promotion.

Product

As can be seen from the Appendix, Casio products are very eye-catching because of the superstar who is familiar to younger consumers. Thus the product aims directly at younger customers. Moreover, watch is designed by the top designers and there were two colors which is silver and black to select so that consumers can purchase what they like. According to Color wheel pro (2009), silver symbolizes the insight, inspiration, star power, intuition, which gives the impression of sacred solemn, handsome, luxurious. Otherwise, it also stated that black is the symbol of power, elegance, formality, evil and mystery, giving the impression of profound, noble, intelligent, and stylish (Color wheel pro, 2009). The first sunrise in the morning is the symbol of hope and vitality, such as vitality of young people. The other one is at night among the cold, with mysterious feeling.

Price

G-shock watch shows a proper price to the consumers because of its good quality. The official price of G-shock (G-700BD-1AV) in the appendix is around RMB1000 (E-bay, 2009). Even though the price is not shown specifically, after checking the price on its official website and understanding the materials and design of the watch, it can provide consumers a desire to buy it.

Place

Consumers can buy this watch in Casio exclusive agencies. It is stated that choosing the place of the market research and positioning must be close to target customers. There are a significant number of Casio stores all around the world such as Guangzhou, London, Paris and New York so that consumers can purchase G-Shock watch easily.

Promotion

According to America Association of Community Theatre (2009), publicity is the most important responsibility in this advertising, which means that the media is every brand’s closest partner. If people do not have media publicity, customers will not know the brand and products. This advertising was on many famous magazines and newspapers such as 1626 to attract consumers attention.

market segmentation

G-shock put its market segmentation in the advertising is the concrete manifestation of the age, gender and hobbies. To be more spercific, G-Shock use Initial D which is a movie about car racing for youth. It obviously focus on teenagers and the people who love racing, say 15 to 25. Furthermore, male may be the major part of the consumers in the market. Because of racing background, it also attracts a considerable number of parents purchasing the watch to their son.

Conclusions

This advertising used many business methods, for example, marketing mix and market segmentation. In conclusion, promotion is the most important part which is the purpose of the advertising. The advertising gives people information about spirits such as insight, inspiration and star power of G-Shock watch. On the other hand, market segmentation has a very obvious target to people in 15 to 25 who enjoy racing.

Recommendations

There are some recommendations for this advertisement. Firstly, this watch can sell to more consumers because the outlook of this watch adopt not only the youth and people who like racing but also all male consumers. Secondly, this advertisement can post in many places, such as magazines and some websites which is popular in the youth. Finally, the watch in the advertising is not prominent, so consumers will easy to confuse the information. To fix up this problem, it is useful to make the watch more clear to see such as using highlighting and big picture to show the watch. Therefore, after improving these problems, it will get better results for the sales of this watch.

References

• America Association of Community Theatre (2009) “marketing/publicity”

  http://www.aact.org/people/publicity.html

  Accessed date: 21st Nov.2009

• Casio International (2009) “Development story of G” {Online}

  http://www.casio-intl.com/wat/g_shock/his.html

  Accessed date: 21st Nov.2009

• Color wheel pro (2009) “see color theory in action” {online}

  http://www.color-wheel-pro.com/color-meaning.html

  Accessed date: 21st Nov.2009

• E-bay (2009) “The price of G-shock”

  http://cgi.ebay.com.my/Casio-G-SHOCK-Cockpit-Watch-Express-G700BD-G-700BD-1AV_W0QQitemZ290371794999QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_207?hash=item439b81f837

  Accessed date: 21st Nov.2009

• Hall D, R. Jones, C. Raffo, and A. Anderton (2008) Business Studies, 4th edition, Harlow Essex, Pearson Education

  Accessed date: 21st Nov.2009

• Gwolong (2008) [Online] ‘G-shock (G-700BD-1AV) – Figure1’ Available at: http://www.gwolong.com.tw/T5004ShowCmdyData?y_KindId=766654&y_SketchName=Sketch1-2_Hi178 Access date: 12th November 2009