I love corona!

I came across this blog written by one of my classmates, Amelia, who talks about how the Movember Campaign gains worldwide recognition and awareness. Indeed, it is great to see all those charity events and campaigns in different part of the world, gathering volunteers, working towards the same goal, for the better good for the society. It is always so encouraging to see there are people out there, sacrificing so much energy and time trying to make the world a better place, which makes you want to be a part of the change. Movember Campaign, Lace Up 4 Kids, for example, and tons of other charity events that only require so little effort from each individual, but able to generate a tremendous amount of energy and power to make people’s lives better, to develop a better place for everyone, a place full of love and care, full of laughter and joy. As long as there are people out there who care, we can make a change in the world!

Everyday, you can see all kinds of ads almost everywhere, on the street, bus stops, subway stations, building walls, and even a moving vehicle can be some sort of advertisement as well. It’s fascinating how people came up with those creative and eye-catching ads that register in your memory right away at the very first glance. I’ve found a few that are not only hilarious, creative, but meaningful ads want to share with you guys.

Ouch for UPS!

Is this necessary?

There goes your accounting skills…

I’m sure this one will be easy to spot!

Don’t be stupid, protect yourself.

I love looking at different ads, learning from people’s creativity and humour. Good ads are simple, easy to understand, and entertaining. Most importantly, they convey their messages effectively when people glance through them without any effort.

Apple is probably one of the most recognizable companies in all modern countries now. Their branding strategy is to differentiate themselves from all the other competitors in the same market. First of all, they entered the personal computer market with different design and unimaginable features while using a different operating system from every laptops out there. It was a big risk they were taking. Secondly, in personal electronics market, Apple invented iPods that provide huge mobility and fashionable lifestyle. Apple iPods in the end blend into the fashion trend, give out a sense of “coolness” or “high-class” comparing to other mp3 products. Last but not least, Apple is taking over the smart phone market as they introduce their iPhones with the complementary App Store.

It is the lifestyle, the passion and the aspiration they are selling to their customers rather than just the products itself. “The Apple brand personality is also about simplicity and the removal of complexity from people’s lives; people-driven product design; and about being a really humanistic company with a heartfelt connection with its customers.”

Earlier this week, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced their plan to launch a messaging system, where most online chat messengers including Facebook chat, google talk, MSN, SMS… etc, will integrate into one big messaging system. They might even do a partnership with Skype in the future to implement the feature of video calls on Facebook.

Although Facebook is a great tool to keep in touch with friends and families, it should just be the “social network” it is supposed to be, nothing more. Right now, Facebook allows users to import their contacts from different messengers into the service that won’t let you undo. Conveniency for users might be the reason why Facebook is implementing new features. However, in the long run, users will only be more attached to it day by day which result in constant distraction for people during work or studying.

Personally, I do appreciate what Facebook does for us, helping us keeping in touch with people who live all over the world, keeping us updated with what’s going on in our friends’ lives. However, I don’t appreciate the fact that Facebook is trying to associate with every aspect of our lives. After all, it is only an online tool.

Advertisements are meant to be creative, meaningful, and eye-catching. However, if they are overly exaggerated, it could lead to some negative effects or disturbing meaning that contradict the original purposes of the advertisement. Here are some examples of overly exaggerated posters:

This poster is an Italian company – Relish’s summer 09 advertisement campaign. “The ad poster simulates Rio de Janeiro police officers aggressively handling European tourists with a man having a hand up one of the women’s skirt”, which offended the military police of Rio de Janeiro who demanded to take down the poster. The original purpose of this poster is to express the irresistibility of the sensation when girls wear clothes designed by Relish.

Burger King, a place associates with families and children, designed a commercial that gives people unnecessary symbolic presentation and somewhat offensive imagination. The original purpose can be easily twisted when overemphasizing certain aspects.

Creativity and impression are the two main foundations when creating an ad. It requires unique knowledge and special sets of skills to design a good ad, yet it only takes a bit of carelessness to destroy its purpose.

In response to Sumit Wagley’s comment on my previous blog “E-books Revolution”, there are few issues I should address and explain my view on the potential extinguishment of physical books.

My previous blog post, E-books Revolution, addressed the possibility for physical books to disappear in the next 5 years considering the rapid growth of eReaders due to its convenience and efficiency. Wagley’s argument is that “In the third world countries, these technological devices haven’t made as big a mark as to replacing the physical books.” He also mentioned that most educational institutes nowadays including elementary schools to universities are still using physical textbooks.

In my opinion, there is actually a possibility for physical books to disappear in the near future, in fact, especially in third world countries. Because the difficulty in distributing physical medium in those third world countries is extremely hard to overcome, it is way easier to distribute eReaders which are loaded with eBooks. For example, as the founder of One Laptop per Child – Nicholas Negroponte mentioned, instead of distributing 10,000 physical books, if each eReader is loaded with 100 eBooks they just need to distribute 100 eReaders in total to reach the same goal.

I can see the possibility of this replacement of physical books happening in the future. Maybe not completely replaced, but at least eReaders will take the majority market in the near future.

Nowadays, smart phones and their users are inseparable in their daily life. People rely on smart phones for everything: keeping in touch with friends, business needs, searching information… etc. It is a great opportunity for marketers to realize this social trend and create products that complement the use of smart phones. In this article, Will Your Next Car Be A Smartphone?, from CNN, gives a great example of how car companies take on this opportunity to fit their products into this smart phone social trend by integrating smartphone functionality in cars. “We saw this trend of mobile devices increasing, and we said this is an area where we can offer the customers a safer way to use those in the car” said Ford spokesman Alan Hall. This is exactly what we learned in class about how marketers analyze the market and derive from it to provide complementary goods and services. Ford smartly combine those products to satisfy customer’s needs in both safe-driving and constant smartphone usage. Whether this idea will be a successful launch or not, we shall see the answer in a few years.

As I was reading some news articles on CNNTech, I came across this article talking about how physical books have a relatively high possibility of disappearing in the market in five years. This article(Will physical books be gone in five years?) grabbed my attention right away because our group is actually researching on the subject of how Amazon’s eReader dominates in the eReader market and also helps the growth of e-books dramatically.

Actually, it wouldn’t be a big surprise if all the physical books disappear in five years considering the number of eReaders, smart phones, iPads, and other electronic devices growing every single day. One of the few challenges they are trying to overcome is to attract most university students to utilize eReaders for textbooks. It has a enormous potential revenue if retailers like Amazon can conquer the obstacle. EReaders save up energy, is easy to carry, has big capacity, and maximizes efficiency. It is hard for physical books to compete with all those factors.

I have always had  a dream, to talk face to face with the person on the phone. Now my dream has come true, thanks for iPhone 4’s Face Time! This youtube commercial for iPhone’s Face Time really makes potential consumers want to be a part of this new trend, new technology, and new fashion. Although Apple doesn’t seem to be very concerned about their product promotion, its strong foundation in brand awareness and the high quality in their products keep their fans attached to them closely. Every time when a brand new product is launched, Apple would post a video describing its features and designs which attracts more and more consumers to experience the quality of their product through visual presentation. Personally, I am a huge Apple enthusiast. I categorize all the computers into two categories – “Macs or Non-Macs.” They are THAT awesome!

Mercedes Benz – every man’s dream. This poster uses the slogan “Even cars need a hero” to distinguish the new Mercedes from all other cars. They set themselves on top of the hill which gives consumers an impression of the fine quality and high level of superiority over non-mercedes. It puts an emphasis on the elegance of the car with the black background, shiny body with perfect curve. The key to success in designing an advertisement for any product is to be able to project the quality of the products and set themselves apart from other substitutes as the same time. It is the value that customers care the most. This advertisement does a superb job in showing off their quality, their design, and their value.