Alan Lee's Blog

Having read Jasmine Wing’s blog “Changing the Distribution Channel” and the idea of promoting people to buy from local resources just made me ponder about how simple life would be if people could just be satisfied with the things that could be provided close by.  However , we will never be satisfied. If one group has something special, then others would want it as soon as they hear about it. This is what has sparked the creation of the international market, where society involves itself in imports and exports in order to gain favored materials. As by involving itself in this market, different societies become specialized and become known for their exports. The more they specialize in it, the cheaper and more efficiently they can make it. It is true that incurring this does make the items cost more, but this is the necessary trade off to gain these goods.  A community may not meet the specific requirements or natural environment to be able to produce such goods using the resources and or skills that they have. This is why people seek out each other’s help and expertise.

And this brings us back to distribution channels. Gathering goods only locally  hinders a company’s product line. I’ve worked with wholesales company that sold fruits and vegetables and even though they try their best to get things locally from places close to the lower mainland, they tend to go beyond these supplies  when presented with items of higher quality outside of the local area.  Often in these places, they have more fertile soils and better farming conditions. To be able to get this, they have to use transportation to be able to bring a superior good to the customers.

If people could just be satisfied with lower quality goods, then they would not need to venture out. But humans are always striving to obtain better goods, a strong reason for such emphasis on R&D.  For a company it is better to get better goods rather then be outshone by other competitors for having a low quality.

Scrolling around the class blogs, I came across Priscilla’s Thany’s 2nd blog critique on another blog called  “Why Good Packaging Matters”. They highlight the importance that  packaging plays with grabbing the consumer’s attention and being a visual representation of the company’s brand and image. This helps products to differentiate from competitors. However, given this world , there exists another group that can abuse packaging  and damage the company’s brand. These people are counterfeiters.

These people replicate the company’s design in hopes that it will be accepted by those who do not know better. Consumers who base sales only on packaging will be mislead and with that happening, word of mouth can cause the company to lose out on consumers due to these fake products.   As said in the blog  Vitro’s Perfume Bottles Difficult to Falsify- True Glow of Avon, thought must be carefully given into a packaging’s design.  Though there are varying levels of risk of counterfeit for each product when people do commit it, the company will definitely be losing money. No matter if it was snacks, drinks, medicine, perfume or rings, if it is easily replicable, people can copy and leech off of the company’s brand.

Therefore, it is important to design the packaging as individualistic and with the idea of making it  difficult to copy and something that only the company can make.  Doing this will protect the company’s brand name and dissuade people people from copying. However when creating these packaging, it has to make financial sense in that your expenses are below your revenue.

Packaging therefore becomes a double-sided sword. The packaging represents a company and it’s brand to bring about differentiation, but the packaging design can be abused and used against the company. It can also cause the company to incur more expenses due to the packaging designs.  Packaging design must precede carefully as they should take these factors into consideration.

http://blog.libertypackaging.com/blog/bid/50849/why-good-packaging-matters/
http://www.packagingdigest.com/blog/Excellence_in_Packaging/18958-Vitro_s_Perfume_Bottles_Difficult_to_Falsify_True_Glow_of_Avon.php

Recently, Square Enix has release a sequel to one of their most highly anticipated games , Final Fantasy XIII, called Final Fantasy XIII-2. Some background on  Final Fantasy XIII’s effect on the JRPG market.  It  sold 1.5 million copies worldwide within the first 4 days of its release. However, within months buyers were complaining about the mechanics, resulting in a surge of returns and fan outrage directed at Square Enix.

Fast forward two years, and a sequel has been produced. Within this 2 year, Square decided to heed the customer’s feedback  to improve the game.  In some ways they did, however this current game is also lacking, adding on to the damage that was done. As compared to XIII, XIII-2 only sold half a million copies in their first 4 days.

One of the main contributions that had set up this letdown was their powerful marketing. Their video advertisements offered a look into a new generation of gaming, that would set the player’s mind off into this graphically enticing story. Square Enix focused on innovative marketing to display their capabilities. Both games had this hype around them created by the ads.

Despite how flashy these ads were, they were deceptive and did not deliver the games true traits. For instance, ads around the first one seem emotional and exploration.  Some characters were annoying, the story had plot holes, and the game was as narrow as a keyhole. In the sequel, they addressed a couple of these issues, but had forfeited story development.

The whole reason FFXIII-2 is bad is because  Square is doing this “Call of Duty Release Format”, releasing new games every 1-2 years. Square is  targeting a new market, but as they do this , they destroy their current trust within their old market. Square needs to market truthfully or deliver better.

Today we learnt about an element  that influences the marketing environment that is based on  making and maintaining a good relationship with customers .

How well a relationship is between the actors of the mircoenvironment and the marketing department can determine the overall success of a marketing campaign.  These relationships can be either indirectly (a supplier deals with the company’s buyers and therefore do not directly deal with the marketing department, but should the suppliers stop supplying due to a buyer’s mistake, marketing will still be affected as they now need to change their marketing approach) or directly (customers boycott products because of crude marketing) sustained. By categorizing the relationship type under these 6 titles  (The Company, Suppliers, Marketing Intermediaries, Competitors, Public, and Customer), marketing can analyze the company’s opportunities and threats.

This type of categorization and analysis is similar to Porter’s 5 Forces Model. The purpose of this model is to identify the  levels of influence the 5 components have on a company. This is where the two methods of categorization and analysis becomes similar. Both the actors and the 5 forces are used to determine the influence to success, actors influence the progression of a marketing event and the 5 forces identifies elements that have the potential to hinder the company . Asides from the fact that they both use the same concepts of Suppliers, Competitors, and Customer or Buyers in their identification, both look for threats and are capable of determining areas that need more focus.

Though they are similar, it seems that the actor idea is an upgraded version of the 5 forces that is more concerned with its own product at present time and is aimed to size up marketing ideas. It also touches on  internal, ” public” and “intermediary” issues not indicated by the forces. Overall, actors seems like a good classification method.

Good tidings to all who find this page.  My name is Alan Lee and much like most of you, a second year Sauder Student. I’m leaning towards Accounting but nothing is definite, so I’m attending this class in order to gain a more technical and hands on understanding about this department called Marketing. I volunteered for a fundraiser before where I would advertise to passersbys the cause and missions of the organization in hopes of spreading the group’s name  and image and gain donations.  This was my first encounter as being a marketer. Now as one of their targets , I think the first ad I ever encountered was something for McDonald at the age of 4, though their ads were clearly too good to be true as they always showed this perfect burger but never deliver it. But it was interesting especially seeing Ronald McDonald and his crew popping out randomly. Seriously a Clown , a bird,a  thief, and a purple triangle monster end up becoming the mascots for a multinational corporation. Can’t be any stranger than that.

My favorite ads are those that have mistakes. Because they are funny and makes you wonder if it was intentional in order to make it stand out or a bunch of people are going to get fired. From these ads, I learnt the importance of getting your message out to the people because even if something stands out, if no one gets it, the company wasted money funding for nothing. For example this Heads On commercial.

Not to bash it, but I thought it was a wrinkle remover. Apparently its a headache remover.

With this blog done, I’m going back to studying whilst reading 9gag.

Good night.

The person I admire the most is currently my father because he has taught me the means of being true to myself within society.  He has demonstrated to me on various different occasions that it is important to have a clear sense of morality in going about one’s action. He has said to me that there is greater significance in carrying your actions with integrity and truth then it is to be artificial. A lie can only get one so far until the truth is revealed, which will disrupt the trust built in the community. And as he said, being genuine is the greatest way to create a meaningful relationship, both in business and in social context. Relationships are as much about receiving help as it is to give out help. Friendships and businesses grow when the two parties are supporting and helping each other. My father has committed himself to these beliefs throughout his life and his actions are what made me admire my father, a man who is genuine and supportive of others.

In a company, an employee’s happiness, behavior, attitude and innovation are all greatly influenced by one thing and that is the company’s organizational culture.  As Dov Siedman has elaborated employees are extrinsically motivated by their wages but they can be intrinsically motivated as well to work.  As a company moves away from the simple carrot and sticks (rewards versus punishment) system and towards a more complex and positive style of engagement within its infrastructure then the company can grow from within.

As Dov Siedman has said “organizations that harness and support the most inexpensive and abundant source of energy—human energy—will generate the ideas, connections, collaborations, behaviors, and innovations they need to mitigate the threats and maximize the opportunities that our morally and ethically interdependent marketplace poses”. This makes me wonder as to why you do not see this type of development set as a standard within companies. This questioned whether or not companies are just unwilling to change their structure, pay some extra costs or if truly they do not see the long term benefits of achieving this. Then again I guess for some companies, they are unable to achieve such things, probably unwilling to or lacking the financial backing. Still, there doesn’t really seem to be a negative reaction that can be created from making a positive culture.

http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/nov2010/ca2010118_005704.htm

Audrey by 3Com, possibly one of the most failed creations done by the company and is possibly. Ergo Audrey Internet is an internet appliance that enabled the consumer to only browse the web and nothing else. It contained nice computer specs and would have been pretty decent except that it was missing one very important component; it didn’t have a hard drive, meaning that you couldn’t save anything onto it, like you would with a PC or a Mac. This project was soon scraped after its initial launch.

Audrey demonstrates a very important lesson when being an entrepreneur and bringing a new product into the world. This lesson is, always do market research. Though there may have been other factors that could have brought the end of this product, the major issue was doing the research behind the idea to see whether or not this product is desired or not. Being that it’s not portable, it was no better than a really bad desktop.

The money lost on this project could have been spent on creating a more beneficial expenditure if only the company had spent more time gathering accurate market data and giving a more realistic demand forecast.

http://www.retrothing.com/2005/11/oddball_micros__5.html

Audrey

Sponsoring is a risky route a company, or anyone for that matter, can take. Whether the company or investors are backing up an event or helping a new business start out, there is always a sort of risk that is carried by these sponsors. What this risk is is the question of whether or not its investment is being put up to good use. Humans, who even build their careers by taking risks, won’t go do something that they know would not work.  Because of all of this, it makes it extremely hard to get a sponsor to help you out.

But then there are cases like this, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-475095/Dragons-Den-reject-celebrates-soaring-sales-worthless-invention.html. The Dragon’s Den, a well known angel’s investor, whose mission is to help supply venture capital to beginning companies, looked at Rob Law’s Trunki idea and totally ripped him apart. They believed that this invention of Mr. Law was another run in the mill bad idea because they were not convinced nor believed that such a creation would be able to make any profit. But instead of giving up, Mr. Law persisted with his creation, and short time later he became a multimillionaire just from this product of his.

This continues to prove that persistence is the key in creating a business.  Even if world renowned individuals reject your idea, it doesn’t mean game over. What they are, are just individuals. They may dislike something about a product but this doesn’t carry on with the rest of the world. And so persistence is the key to creating a good company.

Earth’s population has gone beyond its carrying capacity. With this the world will end in an abrupt chaos as wars erupt to claim the title to meager amounts of resources. Resources are scarce because of the long abuse of the materials when they were plentiful, now everyone is limited. Stealing by any means will be seen as an everyday thing as the people struggle to live on through a world where there are more people than resources. Governments around the world will be of no help as they will either be destroyed from the beggars, are engaged in war, or are locked up in order to protect those inside of the government. Only the extremely rich and powerful can live in the best form of life that can be given, while everyone else rots or die from starvation or war.

Not a pretty picture. But this is the result of overly using our precious resources. What humankind sees is only convenience and the present. Many do not look at the future nor care about what may come to be. There are others who take away resources out of tradition; an extreme case would be the dolphin slayings at Denmark. And as these things pile up on top of each other, the Earth begins to waste away as animals and other non-living resources are becoming extinct.

There may be many environmental activists trying to promote the desire to lessen resource consumption. But the thing is that there are so many things to worry and deal about currently that many people do not look to the future in grim view, believing that these issues are so far away in time that it would not affect them.  Sustainability is an act in which we try to divert the abuse of resources for the time being, but even still after a while, unless no permanent solution can be found, problems just arise again. And so what can people really do in order to help save the world?

http://www.sustreport.org/news/footprint2002.htm