Doris Zhao

In Jim Connolly’s blog “Do you bake marketing into your products?”(http://jimsmarketingblog.com/2011/10/17/do-you-bake-your-marketing-into-your-products/) he mentions two options that business owners can do when developing a product or service. One is to market it, so that people will think it’s better than it really is; the other one is to market it, so that when people try it, they find it’s even better than you said it would be. I think the difference between these two options is the difference that the marketing managers decide to let customers to percept from the marketing strategy.

In this article, Jim Connolly suggests that business owners to choose the second option. I agree his opinion and his opinion can be explained by the concept we learnt in our marketing class. These two strategies are about customer value and satisfaction. Marketers must be careful to set the right level of expectations. The first option shows that when the customer expectations are too high, customers may be disappointed; the second option indicates when the expectation is a little low, customers will be surprised when they receive products or services in higher quality. The second option is obviously better than the first option. However, the truth is that the second option is less common in our real world. Another situation is when the expectations are too low, the products or services may only satisfy those who buy but can’t attract enough buyers.

In Kally Kan’s blog “Branded, and Catchy Names”(https://blogs.ubc.ca/khykan/2012/01/13/branded-and-catchy-names/#comments), she talked about an interesting software called “Catchy Name Software Generator” which can actually generate ‘catchy names’ for product or even company name potentials(http://www.michellemacphearson.com/catchy-name-software/). The generator takes into account the service you’re trying to offer, and then when you click the button it gives you some options. This software is really helpful when people need to name a company or product in a short time. However, a catchy name is not the most important factor that customers consider when they are making purchasing decisions.  For example, Monster is a well-known energy drink. Its name and packaging is very catchy. This drink is popular among university students.

Kally mentioned that catchy names are a reason why some brands are better known than others. However, I believe it is not the most important reason customers considered when they are making purchasing decisions. When a new product is newly launch the market, a catchy name can quickly generate many customers’ attentions. The sale of the new product may be high as a result. However, the high sale in short term does not indicate that the new product is a success. In the adoption process, the catchy name only raise the level of awareness. Besides awareness, the other four stages that consumers go through are Interest, Evaluation, Trial and Adoption. In the long term, after consumers use the products and know more about the performance of the product, its advantage on awareness will decline.

Reference to the blog ‘”Brandwashing” in movies’ written by Josh Andler.

https://blogs.ubc.ca/joshandler/2012/01/16/brandwashing-in-movies/#content

It is really interesting to find that over 40 different companies advertised in the movie “New Year’s Eve”. When I was watching the movie, I didn’t realize that some of these products in the movie are advertisements. I thought some of these products appeared in the movie because they can represent the fashion trends.

However, marketers have to be careful when they choose the movie and the products. According to the movie itself, marketers can find out the types of audiences that can be attracted by the movie. First of all, they have to consider the target audiences’ age and income. For TV shows, marketers should also consider the audiences’ cultural background. Since many movies are showing globally, marketers should be even more careful because of cultural diversity. Besides, marketers also need to consider audiences’ attitude towards the products affected by the movie or TV show.

However, knowing the types of the audiences is not enough. Marketers should find out which types of audiences are interested in their products and have certain buying power. For some brands, only a few audiences can afford their products, but their advertisement in the movie can help them improve brand images. For example, in the movie “Mission Impossible 4”, BMW impressed the audiences. When people who saw “Mission Impossible4” see BMW cars in the street, they may relate the cars with the exciting story of the movie and even Tom Cruise. By advertising in “Mission Impossible4”, BMW gains more brand power.

When we discussed about the Ali Baba Pizza in the class, I was thinking about its target market. I believe the special pizza box, the Greenbox, can attract customers who care about the environment. However, I am not sure how many customers really care about the environment because most of my friends rarely consider about it when they are making purchase decisions.

By searching online, I learn a new concept- LOHAS. LOHAS stands for Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability, and describes an integrated, rapidly growing market for goods and services that appeal to consumers whose sense of environmental and social responsibility influences their purchase decisions. The Natural Marketing Institute’s estimates the US LOHAS consumer market of products and services to be USD 209 billion – sold across all consumer segments. According to the data, LOHAS consumer market consists 17% of the whole market.

The percentage of LOHAS consumer market is larger than what I expected. Back to our daily life, I shouldn’t be surprised because sustainable marketing is everywhere around us. For example, the new design of Dasani water bottle and Nestle Pure Life water bottle. The Coca-Cola Company changed the color of the bottle cap to green and put an outstandingly green box which mentions “up to 30% plant-based; 100% recyclable bottle” on the bottle. The Nestle decided to use smaller bottle caps so they can make the bottle with up to 40% less plastic.

I did mention the change of the water bottles before, but I didn’t think about the meaning and the purpose of these changes. Furthermore, besides packaging changes, companies also show their understandings of sustainable marketing through product modification, changes to the production process, and modifying advertising. All in all, I agree that sustainable marketing is an important concept in marketing.

Although my father is not a teacher, he has taught me a lot. The greatest lesson I learnt from him was no one can success without working hard. When I was in high school, I participated in many sports events and clubs. Of course, my grades dropped because I didn’t work hard on my courses. My father didn’t forbid me to join those activities; instead, he talked with me as I was an adult. My father likes play golf and he plays pretty good. Although he is not a professional player, many friends ask him to teach golf. He told me his story when he was learning golf skills. At first, he found golf is not so easy to play well. So, he began to buy books about golf skills. He not only read the books, he also took notes about the skills. In three years, he took nearly ten books of notes. He finally became a good player. After he told me his story, I understand that no one success without working hard. I thought a lot and changed a lot after that conversation. I worked hard on my study and selected some interesting activities to join. My father taught me to work hard on everything and this really helps me a lot.

COMM299 is a useful course for first year and second year students to prepare for their future interviews. Although we don’t have to face interviews immediately, we have to prepare for it from now on. After taking COMM299, I found detail is the most important point in our interviews. Details can reflect how well the interviewees had prepared for the interview. Interviewees with well preparation can impress the interviewers, thus they have more chance to win from the interview. From COMM299, I learnt the standard formats of resumes and cover letters. Besides to write the resumes and cover letters correctly, we also learnt how to make our experience more attractive to catch interviewers’ eyes. For example, C.A.R paragraph is a good way for the body part of cover letters. We also learnt to impress interviewers through emphasizing our strengths. Furthermore, in the process of interview, we should also focus on the details such as handshake and business card. A tiny small mistake may turn the interview to be a disaster. All in all, we have to practice more for the resumes, cover letters, and interviews. It is great to have COMM299 in my first year in university. I can practice my interview skills in the rest three years and be a well prepared interviewee after I graduate from university.

Carrefour is a French international hypermarket chain. Carrefour is the largest hypermarket chain in the world in terms of size the second largest retail group in the world in terms of revenue. However, to my surprise, it only ranked number three inprofit  after Wal-mart and Tesco.

To figure out why Carrefour’s revenue was not as large as its size, I focus on Carrefour’s failure in Japan. General merchandise store is an innovation of Carrefour and Carrefour had opened thousands of general merchandise store all over the world. According to the autobiography of Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-mart, the establishment of Wal-mart super center was inspired by Carrefour. Carrefour entered Japan in 2000 and quit in 2005. The deep reason of Carrefour’s failure is Carrefour set its strategy and brand position inappropriately. Most of the Japanese live in small apartments or houses. Dislike Europeans, Japanese consumers like to buy fresh fruit and vegetables everyday because they don’t have much room to store food. However, Carrefour didn’t aware of this consumption custom and didn’t change its strategy. What we can learn from Carrefour’s failure is: accompanies should always fully research the target market and set appropriate strategy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrefour

WangLaoji Herb Tea is one of my favourite beverage cooked with certain Chinese herbal. It is an old honored brand in China with a history over 180 years.(Here to learn more about WangLaoji) In 10^th, Nov, 2010, the brand-WangLaoji was evaluate as much as 108 billion RMB. WangLaoji is the most valuable brand in China.

In my opinion, the drink firm created a huge intangible asset through positive and healthy brand building and marketing. The firm donated 100 million yuan to the Sichuan earthquake victims in May 2008. Not only created intangible asset, the donation also created a huge revenue to the company that year. Thanks to the donation, the revenue of WangLaoji in 2008 increased 3 billion than 2007. I believe that the donation made people think the brand WangLaoji represents “generous”. And consumers always like to buy something from a generous firm to show that they also like the characteristic. Thus, WangLaoji earned respect and money at the same time.

Wanglaoji’s rocket rise is a good example on how to create intangible asset  through shouldering corporate social responsibility.

Ingvar Kamprad, the owner of IKEA, has the entrepreneurial nature emerges both in invention and innovation. Kamprad has created a new approach to perception of buyers. He generated the idea of customers’ equality in shopping. The up-to-date design and low prices attracted all classes of society. He has not only created a store with furniture, but also a place with freedom and relaxing atmosphere.

Ikea always has some unique ideas on sales promotion and marketing. One of the innovative actions of Ikea is reducing its staff. The number of staff in shop is purposely reduced, so the costumers could enjoy freedom in choosing items and participate more in the options. By reducing staff, the company also reduced costs. Thus, Ikea can set lower price to attract more consumers.

Ikea is an example of entrepreneurial company because it create an unconventional way of organizing production factors, effective marketing, and, efficient managing. Based on the reading, Ikea shows a characteristic of innovation.

On Wednesday, German luxury car maker Audi AG (NSU.XE) lifted its 2010 car sales outlook for China as demand continues to boom.  It plans to sell one million vehicles there within the next three years.

I think that this is a tactic of Audi because it’s a specific short term target, and that Audi has drawn up a plan in order to accomplish this tactic. But I think Audi has to face two important problems if they want to achieve this target successfully. The first problem is that Audi can only produce 200,000 cars per year in China. If they want to sell the next million cars in three years, they have to sell at least 330,000 cars per year. However, the factory may not able to produce that much. The second problem is that the brand power of Audi is not as strong as Benz and BMW in China. I know that Benz and BMW lowered their prices earlier this year, but Audi didn’t. If Audi lowered the luxury car price, rich consumers may not choose their cars. However, this situation is not going to happen to Benz and BMW because they have strong brand power. Audi has to strengthen its brand power, and this is also a big challenge.

Read more:

http://www.automatedtrader.net/real-time-dow-jones/24213/audi-targets-1-million-car-sales-in-china-within-3-yrs-lifts-outlook