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Maritza Vargas

Samantha Ocena

Writing 001

1 November 2018

The Power of Business Strategies: How Vector Marketing Convinces Their

Audience That Their Products are Better Than Wusthof and Shun Kaji

Businesses compete all the time, although, some succeed more than others. Vector

Marketing, an American cutlery company that was founded in 1949 in Olean New York, use a

print advertisement to compare to their top two foreign competitors,Wusthof and Shun Kaji.

Wusthof is a German cutlery company that was founded in 1814 in Solingen, Germany and

Shun Kaji is a Japanese cutlery company that was founded in 2002 in Seki City, Japan. Vector

Marketing uses effective product assessment, budgetary choices, and dull images of their

competitors products to convince their targeted audience that their products are the best of the

best and unique.

The purpose of the print advertisement on a sellers book guide , is to convince their

targeted audience that if their knives do not have the brand name “Cutco” from Vector

Marketing, then they are not worthwhile because they are not made of the same high-quality and

do not have an extraordinary guarantee.

In business, having a targeting audience is important. Vector Marketings targeting

audience includes people who own a home, are at least thirty years of age, and are married. This

is effective because their intended audience are most likely people who are established in life. To

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be established in life must mean to be financially stable, “The Federal Housing Administration

will insure loans to borrowers with scores as low as 500.” (Brooks). If a home is bought, credit

score must be a plus and money must not be scarce. “The median age at first marriage in the

United States for men is twenty-nine and a half years old and for women it is twenty-seven and a

half years old” (Geiger). This means that, near thirty year olds or thirty year olds will most likely

be in a recently engaged relationship. This means that they will most likely need to buy items for

their home. On the other hand, for people over thirty, they probably had enough experience with

bad knives.

Vector Marketing used effective product assessment in the advertisement to reach their

targeted audience. Effective product assessment refers to analyzing and breaking down the

product. To do this, they included a compare and contrast chart for the reader to look and

consider what products pertain to them.

On the top- left of the comparison chart is the, “Wusthof Ikon Blackwood 20-Piece Knife

Block Set” The chart lists the types of knives the set contains. To name a few: 6” Utility Knife,

5” Boning Knife, and 8” Bread Knife. On the right side of the comparison chart is the, “Shun

Kaji 19-Piece Knife Block Set” The chart lists the types of the knives the set contains. To name a

few: 6” Serrated Knife, 6” Boning Knife, and the 9” Bread Knife. Ironically, the advertisement,

that Vector Marketing created, does not contain a list of the types of knives they sell.

In essence, the top of the comparison chart is ineffective because certain people prefer

certain knives, a certain amount of knives, and a certain knife size and not including this for

Cutco leaves the reader with a curiosity of how Vector Marketing products are. They may

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wonder if they have a 4” paring knife, 6” vegetable knife, and if the two knives come in a

particular set. It is like going Black Friday shopping and walking past a store that you are not

familiar with, but wonder what they sell inside and if they could possibly have that pink

sweatshirt you have been wanting to buy, but the store is closed.

At the very bottom of the comparison chart a handle, edge, and guarantee description are

given. Wusthof/ Shun Kaji have their handle described as: straight/ rounded, edge described

as: straight or serrated, and guarantee described as: limited lifetime warranty and only covers

against defects in material. On the other hand, Cutco’s handle description is: wedlock and

ergonomic design, edge description as: straight or double-D, and a guarantee description as

forever guaranteed and forever replacement for unconventional use.

All in all, the bottom of the comparison chart, is effective because all three cutlery

companies are included. In this section, different handle designs, edge designs, and guarantees

are described. Cutco uses eye-catching terminology to describe their products, in comparison to

their competitors. For example, “serrated” is used in their competitors description and “ double-

D” is used in their description. Both of these terms refer to as a sawlike blade. This can be be

thought as looking at the colors light grey and hot pink, hot pink will naturally be more attracted

to the eye due to biological reasons that have due with the brain; same reasonig with word

choice.

Vector Marketing used, budgetary choices to reach their intended audience. Budgetary

choices refers to an estimate of costs. The idea is for the reader to look at the budgetary choices

and say, “this is too much or the price for a certain set is not worth it, etc.”

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 On the left side of the advertisement, below the product comparison chart, there is a

suggested price and special offer price for the “Wusthof Ikon Blackwood 20-Piece Knife Block

Set.” and the “Shun Kaji 19-Piece Knife Block Set.” The suggested price is for the Wusthof set

is , $3,435.00 and the special offer price is, $1,999.95. The suggested price for the Shun Kaji set

is, $4,085.00 and the special offer price is, $2,799.95. Ironically, Vector Marketing does not

include their costs for their products, then yet they created the ad.

Furthermore, this is ineffective because people have certain limits to what they want to

spend and only the foreign cutlery companies have the suggested and special offer prices. Once

again, the reader is left with curiosity of Vector Marketing product prices. The reader does not

know if Vector Marketing products are less expensive or more expensive. It is like going to an

airlines frontdesk and wonder if you can get the same flight at a lower cost on a website, but you

don't have any electronics with you.

Vector Marketing, use dull images of the products of their top two competitors in hope

for the reader to look at the images and not really get an eye-catching effect. At the very top of

the advertisement are the images of Wusthof's and Shum Kaji’s sets. Brown, black, silver, and

light brown “... are all basic colors,” (Elert). that are include in the images. Basic colors do not

bring out too much life. For example, a colored photograph is more eye catching than a black

and white photograph.

Indeed, this is effective because humans are naturally attracted to color. It is like listening

to someone give a powerpoint presentation without any images, just plain old words. Choosing

the right colors and images brings things to life.

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 Some may say that based on the fact that Vector Marketing does not give too much

information on their products in comparison to their top two competitors in the advertisement

must mean that their products are not the best of the best and unique. When one creates a poster,

one knows they have a limited amount of space to write what they want to say, as well make sure

the words are not too small. The idea is to get as much information as possible, even if it mean

leaving some information out. This could could of happened to Vector Marketing.

Overall, Vector Marketing does a good job on making their audience feel that their

products are better than Wusthof and Shun Kaji, although, more effective product assessment

information on Cutco and budgetary information is needed, for example, the types of knives they

sell and the knife sizes. Effective product assessment, budgetary choices, and dull images were

used in the advertisement; such as the type of edge, price range, and use of dull colors to

convince their strategic audience that their product is unique. The information would be better

off on a nonprint advisement due to limited space to present information, for example, a video

would be ideal.

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Work Cited
Brooks, Amber. “‘What Credit Score Is Needed to Buy a House?" (2018 Minimum & Average).”

BadCredit.org, www.badcredit.org/how-to/what-credit-score-is-needed-to-buy-a-house/.

Elert, Glenn. “Color.” Color – The Physics Hypertextbook, physics.info/color/.

Geiger, Abigail, and Gretchen Livingston. “8 Facts about Love and Marriage in America.” Pew

Research Center, Pew Research Center, 13 Feb. 2018,

www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/02/13/8-facts-about-love-and-marriage/.