Frank Chuanzhi Song's Blog

Re: Amanda Lai – “The ‘We’ Generation: A call for change or the manipulation of youth?”

As an individual of the Y generation, I have to admit to our abuse and reliance on digital technology. While we are more effective at certain things such as gathering information and maintaining a massive network of virtual relationships, we are becoming more and more deficient at thinking as an individual and forming our own opinions about the information presented to us.

Everyday, we are burdened with the task of filtering through countless news feeds and selectively extracting those that we view as important. This routine is, in my opinion, is causing us to develop a habit to “adopt and move-on”. We often quickly read through an article and assume it to be accurate so we can move on to gathering more information. Rarely do we stop and think about the accuracy of the information we are reading. As long as it sounds convincing and logical, we automatically assume it to be correct. Speaking on behave of many who watched the KONY-2012 video, very little of us actually “[took] the time to research alternate views”. We are indeed “susceptible to the marketing tactics of any organization” like Amanda said  in her blog.

Re: Margaret Fong – The Power of Word-of-Mouth

In agreement with Margaret, word of mouth advertising now accounts for a big part of buyer decisions, especially after the introduction of the internet and social networks. However, it is important to keep in mind that the value in a product is perceived differently by different users.

In the highly competitive market that we have today, most products are of the same quality. For example, PC computers are very similar to each other. HP, Sony, Toshiba, and Samsung all produce PC’s that have the same hardware specifications, software integrations, and add-on services. What differentiates one brand of PC from another is mostly how the companies market their products. This is my opinion atleast.

A few years back, most of my classmates that owns a PC had a HP PC. It wasn’t any different from the Asus that I had but clearly people saw more value in HP. In part, this was due to HP’s heavy marketing campaign to position HP as the one-stop media centre for you home.

HP TV Advertisement

HP Ad - Shawn White

HP hired many high profile professionals to demonstrate how they are using their HP computer in their daily media storage including editing and viewing pictures, browsing through their favourite tunes, and editing memorable video clips. This raises the value consumers perceive in a HP computer without actually offering any extra features. Therefore, while establishing a good brand image is important for a good word-of-mouth advertisement, it is more important to design an effective marketing campaign that captures the focus of consumers.

To the Americans, the Super Bowl is more than just a long-awaited game between two well-cheered-for teams, it is also a festival for high-profile advertisements. In fact, one can go as far as to say that the Super Bowl is as much about the in-between commercials as the game itself.

Since the first NFL final in 1958, the number of viewers had been on an increase. The program is so popular that the number of fans has already reached a “critical mass” where the audience population becomes self-sustaining – there are enough football fans to be able to influence the next generation to become football fans as well.

Since the vigorous launch of the iphone, RIM sales had been plummaging downwards. In my opinion, this was in part due mostly to RIM’s lack of marketing. Think of all the exposure Apple products are recieving: the futuristic Apple stores that’s been placed in nearly every mall around town, the “If you don’t have an iPhone…Well you don’t have an iPhone” commercials, or the “uploaded from my Apple device” captions on Facebook, RIM’s marketing campaign is non-existent in comparison.

However, this is about to change. Hopefully. RIM’s new CEO, Thorsten Heins, announced just over the weekend, that he is looking for a chief marketing officer and that RIM will be improving their marketing message, particularly in the US.

Thorsten Heins, 54, new CEO. (RIM)

“We need to be more marketing-driven,” Heins said in a call with analysts. “We need to be more consumer oriented because this is where a lot of our growth is coming from.”

In an article on the Toronto Star, Carmi Levy( journalist and technology analyst) mentions the following:

“I don’t want to sound nasty, but RIM hasn’t been able to market its way out of a paper bag for quite some time. It’s clear that engineers have been responsible for your messaging. I love engineers, but they shouldn’t be allowed near the marketing materials. Send them back to the labs and hire a marketing/advertising/PR team that understands how to make people feel an emotional connection to your products once again.”

While Levy’s criticism is quite harsh, it is painfully true. RIM had been without a marketing department since March and their line of new products: Curve, Bold, and Torch were launched unnoticed. Mr. Heins’s strategy of redeveloping RIM’s marketing department may give RIM a new chance to survival but they will have a long way to catch up before gaining back their 2008 competitiveness.

Welcome to UBC Blogs. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

Hi everyone!

My name is Frank and I’m a transfer student from the science faculty from the University of Toronto. Like the most of you, one of the reason I’m in this class is because it is part of the STT but another reason is that I believe understanding marketing will allow me to better market myself when I launch my career in the near future. I’ve worked in the position of a marketing coordinator for a Chinese newspaper – The World Chinese Daily where I gained first hand experience in designing marketing strategies, establishing relationships with local businesses, and selling advertisement contracts. My favourite ad is the World Vision advertisements because they are so effective at gaining the viewer’s sympathy and donations, and they are one of the most ethical ads out there! Lastly, an interesting fact about myself is that I owned a Richmond Night-market stand last summer!