Hyundeok Suhr's Blog

The biggest American football league, the Super Bowl, is not as big in Canada or anywhere else in the world as it is in the United States, but the advertisements just draw as much attention for the companies spend millions of dollars for 30 second air times.

One of the advertisements that intrigued me was the Samsung Galaxy Note commercial because not only Samsung has its home base in my home country Korea, but also because its content was very funny and interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CgfknZidYq0

It mocks its biggest rival Apple. In the article Why Didn’t Apple Advertise During the Super Bowl? the author says that Apple should make an advertisement to counter attack. I have contradicting opinions about it. As a potential consumer, I find it very entertaining to watch rival companies compete, so I would like to see Apple’s reaction. Their advertisements get cleverer and their products get more innovative, just like the Listerine and Scope example we discussed in class today. However, it might not be necessary because Apple has very many loyal customers that would stick to Apple products no matter what. It would not be that easy to turn people’s mind like in the Samsung Galaxy Note commercial. Besides, Apple does not have any new products to promote at this point. Apple would still need to consider first time users. According to NDP, Android attracts more first time smartphone buyers. I am very anxious to see how Apple is going to react and the clever marketing tools it is going to use!

I was thinking of what to write for the marketing blog assignment and I wanted to write about something unique. I haven’t been watching TV lately, so I have no idea what clever ads are out there trying to market products these days. So I thought I should do something I saw on streets lately. And it seems like there is a common trend throughout the world from what I’ve observed.

I was walking on campus with my friend and saw a guy wearing only underwear dancing alone in front of the bookstore. When we were closer to the guy, another guy gave us a piece of paper advertising used book sales.

This is a photo taken by my sister when she was an exchange student in Korea last term. It was taken at a busy street full of young people in Korea. Citi Bank was advertising its zero transaction fee products in public with men dressed in tight blue outfits.

Both occasions involved men showing their figures explicitly. I guess it is hard to say this is a trend as I have observed only two advertisements, but it is a great way to draw people’s attention for sure. However, I am sceptical of its effects. I think it will work well if its purpose is just to let the words out and use it as a starting promotion method. But I am not sure if people are going to actually seriously think about buying the products advertised. They will have to do further research before making their decisions, but will they have enough information on how? For example, the Citi-Bank advertisement above claims that there is zero transaction fee, but in fact there are certain conditions that customers need to fulfil in order to enjoy free transactions. Marketers will have to make sure they provide sufficient information and further research opportunities to the customers.

COMM 299 has really given me a chance to learn about myself. I had always avoiding thinking about myself because I always thought it would not be too late to do it later. However, perhaps I should have started earlier. I feel like I am behind everyone in terms of experience and involvement.

In the first term, I learned how inarticulate I was. I did not want to go to class every Friday because everyone else in my class was really good at speech. However, I learned that my speaking had gotten better while preparing for and during my interview. I was able to speak for myself a little better. I still have a room to improve though.

What really made me think about myself was writing my cover letter and resume. I learned that I had very little experience. I had hard time filling out one letter-sized page.

I also learned that I am not ready to go out to the world yet. I thought life out of school would not be so much different. Learning about information interviews and networking altered my view in life. I am afraid of the life after university. It made me see the reality. It made me realize how dependent I had been. I always expected my parents to do a lot of things for me on top of financial support.

I learned a lot of negative facts about me through this course. I will work hard to change and become more independent. This summer I will have my first job that will allow me to see how the real world is like and will help me grow.

You cannot say you really tried if you tried as much as others did. That is probably the closest I can translate what a famous Korean lawyer said into English. That really struck me.  While reading his essay, I felt like he was describing me. Self-fulfilling prophesy is the greatest lesson I learned from him. But in order for it to work, you need to put in extra efforts.

In an effort to save time spent on eating for studying, he chopped up his food and mixed everything. As a consequence, he passed three national law related exams in university while others spent years after university for the exams and he was the top graduate from Seoul National University Law School. He is still keeping himself busy by setting high but systematic and detailed goals. But most importantly, he believes in himself.

To be honest, I came to Canada because I thought I couldn’t be successful in Korea. I was actually doing quite well in school, but I was afraid to grow up. I wish I could stay young forever because of  growing responsibilities. As it got closer to the end of my middle school years, I thought I could not go to a prestigious high school. That is why I came to Canada. I thought I could be successful more easily. I know it sounds corny, but I realized nothing in the world was easy. Learning English was very challenging and it still is. I see my friends that were not doing as well as I was academically getting into top universities in Korea and I somewhat regret coming here. It is for sure that they really worked hard in their high school years, but I still am jealous. But I still seek for the easy way out….because my negative thoughts stop me from stepping forward…

I still think that I cannot do anything. Whenever I see job postings of any kind, I feel like I do not qualify for any of them.  I see other people succeeding in those jobs but never see myself. I never get myself out there and adventure. I always stay in my comfort zone. But I know that it is not going to last forever…but I am still so unsure of myself.

Reading the lawyer’s essay really woke me up. I need to try harder in order to be certain of myself. I have been so uncertain of myself because I have not been trying hard enough. If I try harder than others and what I have been doing, I will be able to achieve what I have been thinking as beyond me!!!

The firm was founded by Byung Chul Lee in 1938 with little seed money after the failure of his business due to the war between China and Japan. Since then, Samsung has grown rapidly and today, the company is the wealthiest company in South Korea.  Samsung is innovative, risk taking, and wealthy. The company introduces better, advanced electronic gadgets very often and they are loved by people all over the world. Also, it provides a wide variety of products including TV, cellphones, cameras, laptops, and many more.  I see a lot of people using Samsung cellphones and laptops at my school in Canada. Recently, it’s come up with Galaxy S, which is a smart cellphone, and modifications to it are kept getting made, so there are many different versions of the phone available. It has taken risks to enter new markets such as Europe and North America. Fortunately, it has been a huge success in the new markets.

BOO! Today was Halloween. Unfortunately, I didn’t go trick-or-treating or to a party. However, I went to a Halloween dance last Thursday, so I got to dress up as a pirate. It was really difficult to find what to dress up as. Most of them were too expensive, revealing skin, or boring. I wanted to find something cute, fun, and affordable. I wasn’t planning on dressing up and I went shopping on the last minute, so I didn’t have much choice.

If I had known about Illusive Skull sooner, I would have had a successful Halloween costume for once. This store reminded me of Zappos we discussed in class; it tries to make customers happy. The owner makes suggestions within people’s budget unlike many sellers that try to sell expensive items. It has just about everything.  Also, short notices are no problems. Click here for the article!

I’ve learned to think in a business perspective in class and realized that I’ve forgotten myself as a customer. However, it all comes down to reading customers’ mind if you want your business to be prosperous. We are customers as well after all.

I am not a huge shopper, but I enjoy shopping clothes.  I go shopping about four times a year and Urban Outfitters is one of the places that I always go to whenever I go shopping. There are tons of brands at the mall, but Urban Outfitter stores always seem crowded. It offers fashionable clothes at reasonable prices and accepts Student Price Card, so they get even cheaper.

Despite the economic recession, Urban Outfitters has shown remarkable growth in the past few years. How is this possible? One article accounts its ability to keep the inventory low and the turnover rate quick the key role in the growth. Its average days outstanding for inventory in 2009  was 56.4, which was more than five days lower than that of Gap, Abercrombie & Fitch, and Americal Eagle. Shoppers are likely to see new products every time they go into an Urban Outfitter store because it gets stocked every 56 days or so, which is very quick for average shoppers including myself. It also means that they have few unwanted clothes, so they don’t have to keep offering lower and lower prices. The fashion industry is fast-moving and consumers seek for new styles very often, so companies have to introduce new products frequently, which keeps the inventory low and turnover rate quick.

There aren’t many Wal-Mart store in Canada compared to other stores, so I never thought it was that much of a threat to other stores. Come to think of it, I go to Wal-Mart quite often and it has items that other stores don’t offer.

Anyway, Wal-Mart, the world’s biggest retailer, is trying to get even bigger according to “Wal-Mart in talks to buy South Africa’s Massmart.”

It is very risky because Africa’s economy is not expected to grow at this moment. It is doubtful that the company will be able to maintain growth by launching in Africa because it is such a poor continent, so there will not be much consumption and demand. Wal-Mart will have to offer something new to customers. In doing so, it’ll need to build factories for new product lines and shipping and storage will cost extra money as well. Operation will be difficult because of the geographical characteristics; supplying electricity for stores will be challenging.

Former success in China, Mexico, and Brazil has given hope to Wal-Mart it seems. Wal-Mart needs to remind itself the circumstances of Africa.