IV. Read an interview with Mirijana, Vice President, at Peason Education.

 

- Mirijana,what is the key to successful marketing?

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- Well,the key to successful marketing involves many different things.Most people would say successful marketing is just a creative campaign.Some people would go further than that and say it involves many good marketing communications, reaching the right people, clear marketing messages, and working well with sales team to get the right sales channels. But the most common definition of marketing is just two words; customer orientation. What does that actually mean? It really means four things: producing what customers want, when the wanted, at the right price and in a way that is profitable for the company, and I believe in that definition very strongly.

 

- Could you describe a marketing campaign that impressed you?

 

- Well, marketing is very much in my blood and it is my first love, so there are lots of campaigns I come across every day that really impress me. But I think the most memorable in recent years has been the Orange mobile phone campaign, partly because the whole area of mobile technologies and mobile communications I find very interesting and incredibly exiting, but partly because it was a great campaign in itself. It has the fantastic strap line “ the future is bright, the future is orange”,which is so memorable and so meaningful for all segments of the population.

 

- Could you give an example of an unsuccessful campaign?

 

- Well, I think the most unsuccessful recent campaign for me was the one where an electrical goods manufacturer tried to roll out a very simple sales promotion. Initially, if you bought any electrical appliance over a certain value, you were promised free flight with every purchase. Now, although initially this campaign did seem to be quite successful because sales went up, in the end they had to stop the campaign because the simply couldn’t keep up with the demand and they were spending a lot on these prizes. So I think basically, from the early stages the campaign was badly budgeted and it resulted in a lot of negative publicity for the company.

 

A. Answer the following questions.

 

1.What is the most common definition of marketing/?

2. Which campaign was the most memorable for Mirijana?

3.Why did she find it memorable?

4. What was the fantastic strap line (slogan)?

5.What other strap lines do you know?

6.What was the promise of the electrical goods manufacturer?

7. Why did this campaign (electrical appliances) appear successful at first?

8. Why did they end the campaign?