It is only after I watched our entire video do I realize how much effort we each put in, what a great video should be like, and how important it is to trust each other in a team. Certain things seem easy at the beginning turned out to be the hardest parts whereas others appeared difficult at first ended up being simple. There are so many things to consider when shooting the video, such as controlling the noise level of different scenes, shooting from different angles to make the conversation flow more smoothly, and searching for the perfect mood fitting music effects to generate a more complete story. Even though I have only learned only the basics of creating videos, I feel satisfied when watching our finished product with the rest of the team and know that the knowledge that I have gained will be useful for the future.

Of course, this video assignment not only broadened my knowledge about acting, filming, and editing but also allowed me to experience new ways to bond with my teammates. Since this project was quite big and different from the ones that I have done in the past, our team had to decide everything on our own – from the amount of information to put about our company, Lululemon, to the style and creativity of the video, and later to the editing and selecting sound effects as well. During this procedure, we listened to different ideas and chose the best one together as a team given the limited time and resource. We were open and patient with each other and also learned a lot from each other. The video in the end might not be perfect in many ways, but it contains all of our effort and is of great value to all of us.

According to recent data, revenue from browser games in China have estimated to be 313 billion RMB in the first half of 2013, which is a growth of 4.1% compared to the previous year. It is not surprising then to find out that many game developers today face the same challenge struggling in the industry: they are unable to maintain enough profit to survive with their one or two well-known products in an oversaturated market.

Browser games are understood to have limited life cycles due to the advance in technology in our society and the competitive market. Therefore, rather than bringing in many new products every year and hoping to capture a small piece of the market share, it is perhaps more important to extend the product life cycle of these existing and recognized browser games that are already at their maturity stage. In order to do so, developers would need to frequently modify their games in order to provide new values that match the dynamic and unstable thoughts of customers. Since the game users are the only source of revenue, companies should focus on word of mouths to establish a positive image and increase customer familiarity in order to stand out among all competitors. They should also take in consideration of the long-term costs and benefits because companies often get trapped in the dead end of trying to capture more profit in the short run and neglect the fact that they need to improve the quality of their existing products.

Perhaps new trend will soon develop and people will eventually shift their focus away from games. However, as of right now, playing browser games are still many individuals’ favourite leisure activity across the world. Companies should seriously consider exploring new strategies of extending the life cycle of their current products and hope to once again, be the lead in the industry!

“Raise your hands if you are Sure!” was a catchy tagline that the brand Sure used in the 80’s for its deodorant products. However, with the growing presence of its competitors such as Axe, Sure has been slowly priced out of the market and has switched owners in the recent years due to the low profit margins. Now the company repositioned its products and is trying to come back into the deodorant market with a more feminine design of the packaging that directly targets female consumers.

Their new design of the packaging is definitely more physically appealing to me. It gives an impression of freshness and eternity. These newly designed bottles do stand out and can probably capture the group of people that are deeply attracted by simple but powerful, bright physical features. However, people are worried about the fact that Sure will lose many loyal customers, especially the male customers whom they did target before. The risk associated with the change in target market and logo is generally perceived as high and costly.

In my perspective though, it is a smart decision for this company to reposition its brand. The image of Sure nowadays is neither strong nor well-known. It has fallen behind compared to its competitors such as Dove and Secret who have a solid presence in the market. Therefore, from a psychological point of view, changing its existing image would be the key to success for Sure, and the first step is to select a more focused target market and a better and more meaningful logo design. The new and brighter image that Sure introduced coincides with its positive ambition to recapture the market’s attention and hopefully will change customers’ impressions about the brand.

Source: http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/once-gender-neutral-sure-now-going-ladies-153402

A recent blog titled “Astroturfing? Silly Name, Serious Business”, written by Sydney Ren, a student in Comm 296, just taught me a brand new term. As e-commerce grows bigger and becomes more widely used these days, the risk associated with online shopping is also increasing. It is almost impossible for consumers to be able to identify all those potential traps set by the sellers due to the lack of physical presence and communication channel. Then the question arises: is it really worth it to shop online despite all the lurking dangers that might severely harm the consumers?

Recently when watching TV, I saw the news about the contaminated breast milk that has been selling online. Whoever came up with this idea, even though that his/her original intention might be sincere and kind, the low quality of the product can be really catastrophic. The online reviews certainly do not provide any information regarding the bacteria that might be harmful to babies. People are not capable of knowing the actual quality of the product and how honest these auctioneers are, and the convenience of buying from online sellers just cannot in any way compensate for a baby’s life. For items that are directly linked to people’s health, especially to vulnerable groups such as infants, it is best to consider a safer way of purchasing the needs instead of taking the risk and regretting the decision later in life.

As for sellers, if they want to stay in business and develop a strong brand, the first thing that they need to gain is the trust of the customers. Without that, the business can only go downhill in the dynamic and competitive world today.

A blog posted by the Seth Godin back in 2007, titled “Marketing to Seniors (Open and Closed)”, mainly talked about how the baby boomers, who are commonly considered “open” and easy to be marketed, have now become seniors who are generally viewed as “closed” and thus not easy to be attracted by marketing campaigns. The conventional marketing strategy to focus on young, supposedly adaptable population is now a false move because the seniors today are not the same seniors thirty years ago.

Marketers today recognize the opportunity and the need to capture the interests of this growing population of baby boomers who have both time and money. In other words, they are the ones who have strong buying power in today’s market. Nevertheless, it is definitely much more difficult to induce the 50+ individuals than the younger consumers to purchase an item. The baby boomers are more experienced, consider more issues, know better how to compare the costs and benefits, and thus spend a longer period of time on a purchasing decision.

The challenge for the marketers today is that even though the baby boomers do not have the same experiences and interests as their parents or grandparents who were considered to be the “closed” seniors going back thirty years in time, they are certainly not the same people as they were thirty years ago either. Their minds function differently, and so do their spending habits. Any company that is able to attract this group of people first and hopefully to the point where brand loyalty and trust are developed will certainly be ahead of the game. Marketers should definitely consider targeting and capturing this exploding senior market in the near future if they have not started already!

Sources:

http://www.comingofage.com/coming-of-age/a-55-year-old-woman-is-not-simply-a-30-year-older-version-of-her-25-year-old-self/

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2007/04/marketing_to_se.html

http://graphicleftovers.com/graphic/buying-power-person-holding-credit-card/

Marketing grasps the interest of consumers and can be observed everywhere as companies integrate all kinds of marketing strategies in people’s daily lives. As technology develops and the world progresses forward, marketing mediums have also expanded to a wide variety of forms and are substantially more effective nowadays. However, due to the recent popularity in Internet marketing, consumers have raised concerns about their privacy when companies use online technologies to track information and analyze consumer behaviour.

There are several ways that companies can use this online database to make profit. Marketers can detect consumers’ use of other companies’ applications in order to improve their own and attack their competitors. They can also send advertisements that may be of interests to particular consumers from the consumer profile that they have created through surveys. None of these actions can be categorized as of high moral standards in the society that we live in today since consumers were unaware of the information tracking process.

A recent article “Where Consumers Draw The Line With Personal Data Collection”, published by MarketingCharts staff, indicates that the majority of customers around the world feel that companies collect too much information from website customization and that their information is shared with 3rd parties. At the same time, everyone knows the importance and necessity of marketing, thus most people are willing to share and to provide information that would hopefully result in a win-win situation between both consumers and marketers. Nevertheless, marketers must clearly set the ethical boundary between collecting information to improve their products and invading individual privacy. The lack of communication with consumers who heavily value privacy will result in customer dissatisfaction and moral criticism from the society.

Source:

http://www.marketingcharts.com/wp/interactive/where-consumers-draw-the-line-with-personal-data-collection-30274/