Angela Qin's Blog

After reading Eli Chan’s post about Reaching for the Yellow Bag, I realized how much more “no name” brands I buy. Especially this year living on my own, grocery shopping expenses has sky rocketed. My cupboard and fridge contain many store brands as I try to cut costs by going without the premium brands. I wanted to take a bag of chips and analyze the four P’s and see it from a marketing professional’s point of view.

Product: At the most basic level the product addresses “What is the buyer really buying”? And the answer to that is a delicious low cost snack that’s ready to eat. Next, the core benefit is turned into an actual product which is chips, with package designs and advertising to go with it. It is a convenience product that customers buy with minimum comparison.

Price:  This is the element in the marketing mix that creates revenue. The low priced no name brand chips has really been embraced in the recent economic recession when consumer attitudes shifted in price and quality. This product uses good-value pricing at everyday low pricing.

Place:  There are many places where I can buy a bag of chips. The traditional super market, a convenience store, vending machines, and more. Since chips are a convenience product and consumers would like easy access to it, it makes sense to distrbute the product to many different retailers in hope of reach more customers.

Promotion: One reason why no name brand items are so cheap is that they don’t engage in advertising. However, there are various ways to promote the items. Frequently there will be in store coupons as the product takes part in sales promotion. They also need a strong public relations team to make sure the brand stays positive in the consumer’s mind.

It’s interesting to dissect something as simple as a bag of no name chips to see the marketing efforts that go into it.

Even long time traditional brands have started to embrace technology. Longchamp, a French leather goods company founded in 1948 is using videos and bloggers for their upcoming international campaign. See the following article for more information.

Longchamp is most well known for the “Le Pliage” line and many of these bags can be seen across the UBC campus. Do you recognize the bag below?

Now, they are employing international bloggers to help launch their new line. The bloggers are from France, China, and US. This represents diversity but also these countries are strategically chosen since a large market of their consumers live in these countries. Having bloggers from different countries can give more localized and relevant updates to the blog readers. The market segment of Longchamp includes affluent and fashion conscious young adults. This age group spends alot of time on the internet. So employing fashion bloggers is again a great choice for the Longchamp marketing managers. As a blog reader myself, I tend to believe the opinion of the writers than the actual brand’s advertisements.

Longchamp is also practicing Consumer Relationship Management by offering a key chain for any purchase of a bag from the new collection for selected clients. This way, they are trying to keep a positive relationship with their most loyal customers.

By implementing social media and CRM, Longchamp is hoping to see success with this future collection.

Just yesterday as I was cleaning the house to prepare for moving, I dug up about 15 viewbooks from various universities. As a student, you always think “how do I get universities to want me”? In reality, many universities are thinking “how do I get the top students to come here?”

I started thinking about marketing and universities after reading Heidi’s post on “Marketing on Campus“. I agree with her that the Shaw campaign was not effective, and their rickshaws were gimmicky and stuck out in a bad way. Her post was about different organizations marketing on universities campuses, I wanted to analyze how universities themselves market.

Although, most universities in Canada are non-profit organizations, they spend a lot of money on marketing. Having the best students choose your university requires a smart marketing strategy and some way to differentiate yourself from all other universities which seemingly provides the same need: higher education.

From first hand experience, Sauder does not cheap out when it comes to marketing efforts. As director of the Campus Ambassador Program this year, we hired over 60 presenters to go to various high schools to promote and talk about their experiences with Sauder. We provide these free presentations at high schools in hopes of attracting the brightest and best students. The differentiation our program has is that we use current students as our presenters. Usually university presentations are done by recruiters and advisors. This can be intimidating for the students, and also the staff members aren’t as in touch with the actual experiences of student life.

Recently, there has been hype about TOMS shoes. Whether it’s my girls or my guy friends, everyone seems to want a pair. And after seeing the example in the textbook about TOMS, I wanted to analyze further into what has made TOMS such a demanded product. You can read about how the company started here.

The amazing thing about TOMS is that Blake Mycoskie tied together for-profit and charity under one company. One of their primary goals is to provide footwear for underprivileged children, however their ultimate goal is still to make profit. Also, what sets TOMS apart from other organizations that link themselves with charitable causes is that there’s proof TOMS is really helping out. Blake doesn’t just dump shoes  in villages, he personally gives them to children and makes them feel special.

TOMS is very smart to capitalize on consumers as marketers. It’s human nature to want to fit in with our friends, colleagues, and society. This trend is even more noticeable with teens and young adults. For me, having a pair of TOMS is killing so many birds with one stone. I get to be part of the trend, have a pair of comfortable shoes, and help out a child in need! Knowing that the product is helping children in need makes it easier to justify a “want” purchase. The marketing department at TOMS has been smart to realize that they can just rely on consumers to spread the word about their product.

Home for the Games is an organization created for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics.It can be classified as a social enterprise as it’s main goal is to provide housing for visitors during the Olympic games. The charitable part of it? “Hosts offered affordable accommodation,and shared half the revenue with charities fighting homelessness in the host region.” By the end of the games they were able to raise “$50,000 for Covenant House Vancouver and the Streetohome Foundation.”

There are usually three types of company

1) Profit-maximizing

2) Charity

3) Social Enterprise

The last one is a combination of the first two.

The difference between social enterprise and profit-maximizing firms is that the former usually takes the profit and reinvests it into the business. They cannot be publicly traded and have a social conscience at the core of its operations.

This startup benefits many different individuals.

Visitors: Finding an affordable place to stay during the olympics when housing is in extremely high demand

Hosts : Share the experience with a guest. Earn a tax donation receipt for the 50% donated to charity

Owner: A sense of accomplishment that he started a business that has social values. (Social enterprise)

Society: Receives a donation from this organization.

Following the success of the 2010 games, this organization is moving forward to the 2012 games to be held in London.

I first read this article a few weeks ago and I thought I was just being overly sensitive about this topic.

The original article has actually been taken off macleans, but I found a copy of the article here

But recently there’s been alot of controversy revolving this article and I realized I’m not alone in feeling hurt and unjust with the obvious racism underlying this article.

There were ways that the article twisted the words to extract emotions from the reader.

In the first paragraph when talking about these girl, one was described as “a second-year student who looks like a girl from an Aritzia billboard”. This immediately makes the readers think of an influential, gorgeous, charming girl. At least when I read it, her words became more credible and seemed like what the leader of the pack would do. Which is to “go to Queen’s, Western and McGill.” This is a halo effect where their one quality overshadows everything else.

This comment is mostly subjective and has no scientific research to back it up. “but is also looking for a good time—which rules out U of T, a school with an academic reputation that can be a bit of a killjoy.” However, many readers would now remember that fact when in fact it’s just based on opinion.

There’s other comments in the article that doesn’t make sense. “Many white students simply believe that competing with Asians requires a sacrifice of time and freedom they’re not willing to make.” So when they say that Asians are smarter, that’s not true. It’s just that a majority of Asians place education at a high priority so they are willing to take the time to do well in school.  It’s not necessarily a race thing but more of a culture upbringing.

Their statistics about local residents are also skewed. Living in Richmond, I am in contact with alot of Asians. Some highschools in Richmond have even 90% population of Chinese. So coming to UBC, the students are already really diverse from some of the high schools in local areas.

UBC Professor speaks out:

http://www.straight.com/article-361680/vancouver/henry-yu-macleans-offers-nonapology-writing-nonstory-called-too-asian

Lululemon is a great example of an entrepreneur.

They introduced new products in a new market.

Judging by the active lifestyle of Vancouver, Lululemon set out to make a brand of clothing that’s fashionable while functional.

1) Wealth

Lululemon is not just a small owner business because it has now grown into a million dollar industry

2) Speed

Lululemon has climbed quickly within the recent five years

3)  Risk

By pricing their items at a premium price, Lululemon faced a risk of demand

4) Innovation

The idea was to combine fashion with workout and it’s perfect for the vancouver envrionment

So it’s three am, and my team has been working on a case for 12 hours. The trudge continues, but I’m taking a break to blog about our experiences.

I’m currently at the CMA BC Case Competition designed for 1st and 2nd year commerce students. And I realized how the topics I’ve learned in COMM101 all tie in together.

Some of the topics we touched on are

-Break Even analysis

-Overhead cost

-Fixed/Variable cost

-SWOT analysis

This case shows really how one discipline of business is not separated from all else.  When we look at human resource issues, we also need to look at the numbers which relates to accounting. Then when we look at profit and revenue we also need to look at management and how the company operates.

Update: Saturday night  and LOW on energy.

This experience has been amazing. Although we didn’t place (very close, judges told us!)  we learned so much and gained an interest in case competitions. There was a case review at the end of the day when the judges talked about general improvements.

One suggestion is very practical and I will be using it in future presentations. That is, to have Q&A slides prepared. Usually, presentations are limited by time and it’s hard to put down and explain all calculations. The Q&A slides kind of acts like appendixes so when the presentation is over and the judges want to know how we got to the numbers, we have something concrete we can pull up.

This blog will deal with Corporate Social Responsibility.

Canada has been slow with CSR but jumped on the bandwagon in recent years. Businesses realized that having social missions will not decrease revenue but can actually increase their bottom line.

Currently in Canada, Loblaws Cos. is #1 on the Social Responsibility chart.  Loblaws is the largest distrubuitor in Canada and is responsible for No Name, Joe Fresh, President Choice products and more.

How does social responsibility help them be successful?

They recently launched a sustainable seafood commitment initiative. They want to have all their frozen, and fresh seafood to come from a sustainable source by 2013. For me as a consumer, that makes me think more highly of the company. When I buy products, I can feel empowered because I am helping the environment by eating products made from sustainable sources. Also, I feel the company cares for it’s consumers because they want to sell only the best quality products.

In general, CSR can benefit a company in several ways.

First, the employees might feel more empowered by the organization’s mission and goals. This will reduce turnovers and will help develop a coherent work culture.

Second, a company that has many social responsibility initiatives will be seen more positively. Having a scholarship fund or a kids camp program will help the company seem more caring.

Lastly, it can serve as a point of differentiation. Like we discussed in class with the Body Shop and their initiatives, businesses can differentiate themselves with CSR missions and goals.

Overall, CSR will benefit the company itself as well as the community at large. There’s no reason to not participate in it!

http://www.loblaw.com

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/managing/report-on-corporate-responsibil/corporate-social-responsibility-governance-practices-rankings/article1609498/page1/

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/your-business/business-categories/sustainability/canada-playing-catch-up-in-social-enterprise/article1763944/

I was checking out my blog and realized all my previous posts are about girly things. I decided I need to change up my contents a little bit. At the start of the year I promised to read newspapers everyday (it hasn’t really happened) so I decided to look in Metro for this blog’s inspiration.

The article I found in Metro was actually ABOUT Metro.  Online article can be found here.

The first thing I want to talk about is the decrease in newspaper market. Other than Metro “all other newspapers in this market lost ground”. This is due to substitutes. We can now read the news online and it’s easier to find information more relevant to us.  Also there are many new entrants as the entry barrier for the newspaper business is not high. Overall there’s fierce competition between all newspaper productions.

Metro however is able to position themselves so they saw an increase in readers. They target a local community ex. Vancouver, and provide a fast read for commuters. Papers like the Province and the Vancouver Sun can be overwhelming. There’s so much information to read! Metro however packs everything nicely and just provides enough for a commuting trip. Their marketing strategy is also efficient. Since they want to target commuters, they hired workers to hand out newspapers at large skytrain line stations (that’s where I got mine actually). This provides easy access and a constant brand awareness of Metro.