Archives: Marketing

Square – Credit Payment Processing Solution

Square provides software and accessories to turn a smartphone that runs on an Andriod or iOS system or tablets such as iPad into a credit-card reader and point of sale system. Square can pull data from customer transactions across its network.

Square, Eimon Yin, Blog, Vancouver, Canada, Credit Payment Processing Solution

Photo Credit: Nik-IT Technology

  • Cost: 2.75 % per swipe
  • Founded in 2009 in San Francisco
  • Launched in Canada in October, 2012
  • Current Market Postion in Canada: At least 800 merchants processed $100-million in payments in 2013 | 20% of Canada’s small businesses
  • Largest merchant categories: 1) Retail, 2) Service providers (eg. accountants, beauty professionals and dentists), 3) contractors or repairmen
  • Future Target: on track to double the number of sellers in many markets
  • Growth Opportunity: Transportation Sector (Taxi drivers and limos)
  • Competitor with similar product:  Amazon’s mobile payments service with lower fees for small businesses (not available in Canada yet)

Citation: Dingman, Shane. “Data-mining Retailers Prove It’s Hip to Use Square.” The Globe and Mail, 21 Aug. 2014. Web. 23 Aug. 2014.

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Time is Love: Miss Cellaneous & A Thrift Store Owner

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Solvil et Titus, a luxury watch brand with roots in Switzerland, is not only regarded as one of the Asia’s favourite brand but also considered a symbol of love and romantic expression. Its success factor in Asia lies in its romantic Time is Love advertising campaigns or its branding strategy.

The video above is one of its famous romantic Time is Love advertising campaigns that are consindered as the classics of Hong Kong’s advertising industry. It is a touching story that is in line with Titus’ Antiquity theme, and its slogan Time is Love. 

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A commercial with a story: A Youthful Summer

Semir, a Chinese clothing brand, came out with two commercials to promote their  S/S 2013 season.
There are two versions: one for female and another for males.

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I think these commercials have three success factors.

  1. Lee Min Ho, a well-known Korean actor, is a brand in himself. Having him in the commercial will attact a lot of fans all over the Asia as well as the world. So the clothing commercial has a huge potential to turn the fans into the customers.
  2. Two languages, Chinese and Korean, are used. Although the target market is more likely to be the Chinese-speakers, the ads can definitely attract the Asian market due to the influence from the increasing popularity of Korean-dramas and Korean-music in Asia.
  3. The “romance” story line is pretty interesting as it tries to define what summer means to people, with the same question “what is summer” on repeats here and there to remind the audience of the idea of the “summer”.

Overall, the commercial is fairly youthful, implying that the target market is most likely to be the younger generations from 13/14 to even late 20s and mid 30s.

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Things that matter to the Yummies: Fashion, Luxury, Workout & Diet

“Taking PRIDE and taking greater CONFIDENCE from maintaining a well-groomed APPEARANCE now defines what it is to be ‘a MAN’ in today’s society” — HSBC

“Men who buy grooming products to boost self-esteem or feel more attractive are now in the majority.” — Mintel researcher

Yummies, according to a HSBC’s research team, refers to young (20-something), urban males who are very much interested in and concerned with personal grooming and health. So what does it mean? It essentially means that many young men are more into looks and styles and that appearance has become a bigger part of who they are or their identity. It also implies that now it is a “NEW norm” for a young smartphone-carrying man to do the followings:

Aaron Taylor Johnson in Plaid Suit

  1. care more about whether Lancom or Clinique is better for his skin
  2. shop frequently at places like Nordstrom, checking out Armani Exchange for shirts and pants, Michael Kors for suits and Gucci for shoes.
  3. pamper himself at a spa
  4. work diligently and persistently on his mind and body by hitting the gym and attending  yoga/meditation (or dance) classes
  5. do groceries at WholeFoods, grabbing kale, avocado, acai berries and quinoa
  6. cook and serve themselves some delicious and yet very healthy meals

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau In a Denim JacketSo what does this new norm or reality REALLY mean? Well, it means more goods and services FOR MEN in terms of an increase in both product breadth and depth.

Guardian reported that according to HSBC, whether it is cosmetics, outdoor sports, fashion or accessories, male purchases have really started to impact overall growth rates.

Also Business Insider mentioned Bain’s report from last year which stated that men account for 40% of the total luxury market and the demand for menswear products keeps on growing.

According to Bloomberg, Michael Kors is hoping to grow its annual menswear revenue to $1 billion, which would amount to almost a sevenfold increase while Coach is close to that goal, having expanded its sales to men from $100 million in 2010 to about $700 million today.

Kendrick Lamar Patterned ShirtMoreover, increasing in popularity are the fashion magazines, websites and blogs exclusively for Men such as GQ, Askmen, Four Pins and Fashionbeans. Men’s love for their appearance has also invaded Youtube where there are workout, skincare and even makeup tutorials.

It seems that young men seem to have an ample amount of time and money to take greater care of themselves and their lives. The reason being, according to Bloomberg, is that a lot of men are marrying later in life these days, freeing up income in their twenties that would otherwise have gone to supporting a family.

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Unmanned Cargo Ships IS the Future, says Rolls-Royce

Drone cargo ships would be safer, cheaper, and less polluting for the $375 billion shipping industry — Rolls-Royce
If it wasn’t enough that the world (or just GOOGLE mostly) is coming up with the driverless cars while Amazon talked about drones delivering packages, Rolls-Royce has created a virtual-reality drone prototype in Norway that simulates 360-degree views from a vessel’s bridge.

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Moore Stephens International, a consulting firm, says that the crew costs account for about 44 percent of operating expenses for a large container ship. Bloomberg Businessweek also mentions that the ships would not only be 5 percent lighter when there is no crews but also would burn up to 15 percent less fuel if replaced the bridge, where the crew lives, with a cargo space and eliminated the crew area (electricity, air conditioning, water, and sewage systems). [Click here for a few more info.]

Although unmanned ships are currently illegal under international conventions, the European Union is providing with a €3.5 million ($4.8 million) funds on a study of unmanned vessels and the researchers are aiming for the simulated sea trials of a digital prototype next year.

While there definitely are concerns for the technology itself, safety, possible job losses and the well-being of the seas and oceans (in terms of the effects on the environment and the ecosystem), the possibility of the drone cargo ships could also create new and different jobs in both software and hardware technology industries and business sectors such as insurance and maritime regulation and operation.

There is a good chance that Roll-Royce’ hope for the drone cargo ships would be more or less in competition with the Amazon’s vision for the drone deliveries by air, especially if the commodities they both delivered are fairly similar. Definitely, it would be interesting to see who is closer to the reality.

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Team Assignment Reflective Post

[Source: https://daniel-farm.com/toyota-car-wire-information-car-alarm-remote-starter-keyless-entry-installation-wiring/]

I love our Team Toyota! We have Jessie, Melat, Sujaree, Kamila, myself and Valeria in the team(Please see the picture below). And here is why!

#1: All of us come from different countries: Hong Kong, Ethiopia, Thailand, Russia, Myanmar/Burma and Latvia [Note: the teammate from Hong Kong grew up here so she’s more of a Canadian. Another teammate grew up in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. I grew up in Singapore. And that just makes our team even more  diverse]

#2: We try to make the most out of different strengths each of us have and minimize individual weaknesses. A few members are better at editing and writing whereas some are too good at being creative or with technology especially for the video assignment. We differ in skills such as being detail-oriented and organized and also in how some of us have more interest in coordination and external relations (such as contacting professor and Toyota Dealership). Since we all have other course-works and commitments such as jobs and volunteering, we tried to work things out so we get things done on time that meet the standard we set for ourselves.

#3: What can be cooler than having a team of chicks talking about cars and Auto industry? Yes, we are all girls in our Team Toyota and I’m proud of it! 

#4: We learnt a lot from this group projects! From trying to come to a consensus despite our disagreements about ideas and strategy to trying to figure out how to use certain equipment/computer program, we learnt about each other, group dynamic and new skills.

#5: We had a tonnes of FUN!!!. Having a pizza/cheese cake party before the first/SWOT assignment was due. Filming in the rain. Waking up at 5am to pick up friends at different locations and drive to Richmond to film outdoor.

 
 

 

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Driverless Cars…. Anyone?


Source: http://pocketnow.com/2012/10/05/self-driving-cars

As Google Inc. leads the quest for driverless cars [1], Toyota, the world’s largest carmaker, recently announced that in about two years from now, it will introduce systems enabling cars to communicate with each other to avoid collisions. GM, the largest U.S. carmaker, is also aiming to come up with vehicles by 2020 that will be able to drive themselves on controlled-access highways.

It seems that the auto industry has specific target customers in mind — the younger customers and the elder ones. [a] The automakers see potential growth in the younger ones as they see the value in taking a relational orientation approach. Being young, they would like to have a fun and comfortable lifestyle and freedom to go wherever they want to go. Although they may not have a lot of spending power currently, they will one day. When they do and are looking to make a car purchase, these automakers wish to be in their retrieval set or evoked set.

However, the recent market trend has shown that the younger customers care less about buying a car and more about renting. [2] In fact, more promising customers are the elderly, the fastest-growing demographic in the world. Being involved in the labour market for longer, they enjoy relatively better disposable income and more purchasing power. Often their health slowly deterioriates in terms of vision, hearing and hand-eye coordination, resulting in some accidents. Last april, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration noted that people aged 65 or older accounted for 17 percent of the 32,367 traffic deaths in the U.S. in 2011. This does not necessarily mean that the elderlies are always the ones at fault in accidents. However, it is possible that they may be able to prevent certain accidents if they are in a better health condition. Hence the automakers are looking into becoming a part of the solutions for these elderly.

More info: [1] http://www.ted.com/talks/sebastian_thrun_google_s_driverless_car.html

[2] http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/real-money-with-alivelshi/Real-Money-Blog/2013/9/26/generation-renter.html

Source: [a] http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-20/elderly-dying-in-crashes-seen-spurring-self-driving-car-demand.html

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Say NOOOOO to another piece of chips! Or Can you really?

“They taste and smell real but are completely artificial in reality, tricking our bodies.” –Bruce Bradley, a former food industry executive

“Salt, sugar and fat are the three pillars of the processed food industry. The companies’ researches have shown them that when they hit the very perfect amounts of each of those ingredients … they will have us buy more, eat more.” – Michael Moss, New York Times Investigative Report and author of Salt Sugar Fat.

Do our bodies really need salt, sugar and fat — from the snacks?

Can we as consumers make a rational choice on what and how much we consume according to our health situation?

Maybe, we cannot because for most, these products are convenience products but not shopping products.

With so many health problems arising such as obesity, where does the responsibility lie? The companies? The consumers? Or Both?

On one hand, publicly-held and profit-driven processed foods companies hire an army of chemists, physicists, neuroscientists and food scientists 1) to conduct numerous researches finding out how the customers are attracted to food and how they can make their foods (more) attractive to the customers. Considering fullness/satiety as serious enemy, snacks are made to be eaten non-stop until the packet is finished.

The scientists, carrying out a Unilever-funded research study, tested whether people’s perception of a chip was altered by the sound/crunch it made when they bit into it. They found a possible way to control the perception of the potato chips since “[they] were perceived as being both crisper and fresher when … the overall sound level was increased although the consumers are often unaware of the influence of such auditory cues.”

On another hand, I suggest the consumers need to learn how to have an equivalent amount of will power resisting these crunchy, tasty and temporarily-satisfying chips.

Sources: [1] http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/food-cravings-engineered-by-industry-1.1395225

[2] Photo of Miss Vickie’s:  http://www.sld.com/before-and-after-miss-vickies/

[3] Photo of Lay’s: http://www.couponaholic.net/2012/06/new-0-551-lays-potato-chips-0-551-sun-chips-printable-coupons-plus-pepsi-mountain-dew-12-pack-coupons-still-available/

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Response to Maggie Lo’s blog: Station Square’s Attractiveness

https://blogs.ubc.ca/maggielo/

Noting a tremendous rise in pre-sale condos in GVA (Greater Vancouver Area) in 2013 and identifying young adults between mid 20′s to late 30′s with career potential as a target market, Maggie talked about the main selling points of Station Square, which, in my opinion, seem to utilize the psychographic [self-concept and lifestyle] and benefit segmentation variables for its target market segment.

First, the major selling point of Station Square Condo is that these young adults are not only buying a home, but also a lifestyle that engages with and creates a sense of belonging in the community [psychographic segmentation variable]. Second is the benefit of convenience due to a) an easily accessible public transportation, b) closeness to Metrotown and Crystal Mall shopping centres and c) Station Square’s first two floors as a commercial and retails space — possibly occupied by at least a grocery store, restaurants, cafes and retail shops.

I believe that locational excellence plays a role in creating its perceived value. With half an hour to reach to either Vancouver downtown or Surrey downtown by sky-train, Burnaby’s centrality in GVA is certainly very convenient for those who have such needs.

Moreover, I assume that the sales agents at Station Square can be considered as authoritative figures because they would not only solidify what the customers knew already about its locational excellence and convenience but also attempt to further enhance its perceived value in the eyes of the potential customers by explaining about its product excellence in terms of the features of the room such as the view, the gym, number of bedrooms, the flooring and so on. According to Maggie at her second visit, one of the agents did indirectly highlight its product excellence by claiming that its first phase was sold out in a few days.

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