It is the end of COMM296 and our project. I really appreciate everyone’s effort in finishing it. I think that my team is really great. My teammates are so helpful and kind. We changed from being classmates during the first assignment to friends when we were preparing the video.

The final part is tough but really enjoyable. In the previous parts, we could use paragraphs to present the ideas. This time we can only use several sentences to summarize the ideas. In order to cover the main points, we spent a lot of time in discussing the things we should cover in the video. Finally, we make it. Indeed, I have never thought that we can really make this interesting and informative video! This project really helps me know more about myself. Originally, I always thought that presentation is one of my weaknesses, but it seems that I can really do well if I keep practicing it.

If I got a second chance, I would improve two things. The first one is that I could be more active in suggesting ideas. Although I also suggested my views and opinions, I thought that some ideas were unrealistic and didn’t suggest them. However, the video may be funnier if we can include some of the crazy ideas! The second thing is that I should encourage my teammates more. I think that it could help create a friendly environment and improve our performances.

All in all, I think that we really did a good job. As an exchange student, this project helps me know more about the students here and I am impressed by their smartness. I hope that you guys will enjoy our video!

After reading the passage “10 Social Media Marketing Ideas from Big Brands” in Influential Marketing Blog (http://www.rohitbhargava.com/blog), I was reminded that social media marketing is now extremely popular and we are no longer discussing the advantages of using it, but how to use it in a better way.

There are 2 points that impress me the most.

DEFLECTION ISN’T ENGAGEMENT

Social media can be treated as a bridge between customers and a company. However, what do you feel if you receive a reply like “Please contact our customer service by calling xxxx” after you asked a straightforward question in a company’s Facebook page. I guess you will be disappointed or angry. It is because this Facebook page cannot help you solve your problem. The true engagement is treating the social media as one of the ways to help and answer their customers’ questions but not redirect them to the traditional means.

 TREAT EVERYONE LIKE AN INFLUENCER

In the past, we always think that good news never goes beyond the gate, while Bad news spreads far and wide. However, People become more willing to share their joys and satisfactions after having some goods or services now. I cannot remember how many times I asked my friends where I can find the food they posted on their Facebook. I believe my friends’ recommendations because they do not receive any reward and the close relationships we have. This kind of recommendation is even more powerful than any commercials.

To conclude, it is now a common knowledge that social media is an essential tool in doing marketing. The next stage for discussion will be the ways to make good use of this powerful weapon. Using this weapon cannot cause you go much faster than others, but using it badly will certainly cause you go behind.

After reading the passage “Capturing the Hearts of Loyal Customers” by Lee, Wei Chee, I am thinking of the targeting and hence positioning strategy of the retail store Megamate.

As mentioned in the class, competing with price is not a good strategy since it will continuously decrease the profit margin. A better approach should be increasing the value of your products in the eyes of the consumers. The strategy used by Mega is to offer excellent technical support. It is no doubt very impressive to the Baby Boomers and Generation Xers.

However, is this strategy workable for all generations? I think that this strategy may not be able to attract the teenagers. We can find two characteristics inside this generation. Firstly, they are extremely price conscious. Even if there is only a very small change in price, many of them will reconsider their consumption decision. Secondly, they don’t see much value from extra services unless that product is expensive. For example, when people from the older generation go to a place to have their lunch, they may consider the service as important as the food. However, teenagers always ignore this part as long as the price is good for them and the food is not that bad.

To be honest, I am not sure is it because of the difference in age only or is it the change of the thinking pattern of a new generation. It is because when I am looking at my younger relatives who have already worked for 5 years or above, I find that they also don’t really care about the services. If it is really the case, then we should think carefully how to deal with this change and find out is there anything that this new generation can see the value.

         Today is your first day in Downtown, Vancouver. You wake up at 10:00 a.m. and feel so hungry after spending your whole night to move in this place. As a result, you decide to buy your favorite food, pancakes as your breakfast and try to search the keyword “pancake breakfast downtown vancouver” on the internet. Unfortunately, you can find nothing related to the shops which are selling them (NO marketing!). You are disappointed and decide to find the shops yourself. Since all the shops look like the same, you cannot know what kinds of goods they are selling. You go in one by one but you can only find burger, sandwich or Chinese buns. Finally, you choose to give up and have a burger.

         This story seems ridiculous. However, it also reminds us marketing appears everywhere and it does affect our life every moment. Without marketing, you will never know where you can find the things (as simple as your breakfasts) you need. Then, you will need to spend so much time to search for the shops yourself.  Otherwise, you may choose to give up and get the things that may not be your first choice (burger in the example). Even worse, you may even don’t know that kinds of products are available to buy in the stores.

Just like a gun, marketing isa tool. You can use it to make our life easier, more convenient and satisfied or you can use it to deceive others. It depends on the users but not the tool. I think it is better for us to understand what marketing is by appreciating how do marketing satisfy our needs before making a judgment that marketing is creating illusions.

As a final year finance student, I used to think that marketing is something related to graphic designs, slogans and posters. After taking this course, I know how naive I am. Of course, marketing includes advertisement, but more important inside marketing is the strategic plan. One of the mains point of the plan is how can we satisfy the needs.

In order to understand the needs of customers, the first question is who will be our customers? It comes to the STP process. Firstly, we should divide the customers into different groups by looking at their behaviors, histories and wills. Secondly, we would find which group(s) is more favorable to us. Finally, we would customize our brands, products and advertisements in order to impress the targeted customers and fulfill their needs. However, how important is it? Let’s have an example.

As a student come from Hong Kong, I would like to express my view on the Disneyland and its competitor Ocean Park(Ocean Park Advertisement) in Hong Kong. As for the targeted customers, Disneyland should be targeting people who grew up with Disney Cartoons and want to have a more “realistic” contact with the characters. Ocean Park in the meantime should be targeting people who love sea animals. That’s the difference. As a multi-cultural place, Hong Kong people grew up with not only Disney, but also Japanese cartoons, Chinese cartoons, etc. The connection between Disney and Hong Kong people is much weaker than people in the western countries. However, what we love is in fact the ocean and also the marine life which can give us a sense of peace and freedom in such a busy and fast-pacing city. This is simple but enough to explain the success of Ocean Park and failure of Disneyland in Hong Kong.

Because of the close relationship between marketing, sales and revenue, people in different companies always think of some new and effective strategies to promote their brands and hence earn more money. Some of them go very success in creating extra value of their products, like Apple and McDonald. However, some of them go to the wrong way.

To start with, let’s have an example first. A 57 years old former trainee policeman claimed that he owned a new kind of anti-terror technology and this kind of innovation could detect drugs, people and most importantly explosives. He then told this “story” to the government organization in different places or countries. Unluckily, many of them trusted what he said and bought the devices with a price of £27,000 each and £50million in total. Even Worse, they were used at every checkpoint in Baghdad and Basra from 2006 in Iraq and caused thousands people death or disabled. Ironically, the device was in fact a golf ball finder.

What implications can we have through this example? What is the difference between creating value and manipulating value? One typical example to illustrate this is the tobacco advertisement (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8oRfKWJrOY). Nowadays, when we talk about tobacco, we will come up with some words, e.g. unhealthy, addiction… However, that was not the case in the older generation’s eyes. In the tobacco advertisement, cigarette is always linked to some “unrelated” or “irrelevant” values, like romance, mature, tough or even healthy. Because of the misleading contents and the harmfulness, tobacco advertisements are restricted or even banned in lots of country.

To conclude, marketing is a tool to create value which means that it can let the users or customers to enjoy their goods or services more or through different angles. However, we should keep in mind that we should use it to create an illusion that is irrelevant to the real situation. Otherwise, it is not only harmful to the customers but also your company.

Golf ball finder case:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2318182/British-millionaire-James-McCormick-jailed-selling-fake-bomb-detectors-Iraq-UN.html#ixzz2feBt1NWA

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