Month: October 2010

Recently, I read about a friends message related to McDonald’s delivery service in Hong Kong.  This made me wonder why McDonald’s here does not offer a delivery service also like how Pizza places do.  Because there are so many McDonald’s restaurants here, it seems like delivery would not be hard compared to having employees in Honk Kong bike to various apartments to deliver food.

Later I realized that the reason why McDonald’s does not offer a delivery service is probably because they have drive thrus here instead.  Instead of using up tons of gas to deliver food at each house, people here can easily drive to the closest McDonald’s and go to the drive through if they are too lazy to get out of their car.  In Hong Kong, this would never work because restaurants are usually in between many other shops or inside malls so there is no way of creating a drive thru.

McDonald’s delivery and drive thru services should how they deliver their service differently in different market segments.  In Canada, because majority of the people drive regularly and there are many McDonald’s nearby, having a drive thru system is more cost effective for the McDonalds yet still convenient for the consumer.  In Hong Kong, majority of people are walking or taking public transportation and because restaurants are so small, having a drive thru is extremely difficult.  Having a delivery service is more convenient.

In the recent years Facebook has frown to become one of the biggest social network ever and millions of people especially youth, spend tons and tons of time on Facebook. Of course because this trend is becoming so popular and large, many people/firms are using Facebook to advertise, sell products, promote products and events, and many other things by creating fan pages for people to “like” or creating groups etc. Today, when I check my own Facebook, I found the weirdest friend request:

For those who don’t know, Rilakkuma is not a person, it is just a Japanese fictional character.  When I clicked on it, I found out that it was a group of people who created a Facebook page for this character and uses this page to sell Rilakkuma and other San-X (Rilakkuma’s company) cartoon products like stuffed animals, pencil cases, etc.  Basically they put photos up of all their products and they give out information about where to meet (within Richmond) to purchase these products from them.
I think the reason they promote this way through Facebook is because they can save costs of opening an actual store or perhaps they don’t have enough funding to open their own store.  I’ve also seen similar people sell asian accessories and nail polish that are usually hard to find in Vancouver through Facebook. It is such an effective way to create a Facebook profile because loyal customers can become “friends” with the page and this would spread to the customers other friends.  Also, it tells you how many mutual friends you have with the page, so it shows you how all these friends you have are actually purchasing their products -in this case, it seems like 2 of my friends buy stuff there.

I think using Facebook is a great way to promote new products especially if one if thinking of starting a business.

A couple months ago, my friend showed me a really inspirational video promoting National Entrepreneurs Day.

The video was very simple but it gave a really strong message in a really creative way with carefully chosen music that enhances the video and makes it feel even more inspirational.  It was such a great way to promote Nation Entrepreneurs Day because it has pretty much no cost except for the time used to create the video, it was uploaded onto Youtube where it is exposed to millions of people, and it doesn’t cost any price for a viewer too watch it and share it with others.  What I also realized was that it also had another “international version” for viewers outside of the United States and that reminded me of how marketers are always looking at different segments to target at.

It also made me think back to the Baby carrots promotion during the beginning of September where there were 3 versions of promotional videos that were dedicated to different market segments/ audiences.

Here’s Entrepreneurs can change the world:
(the video is slightly cut off here..but its okay when its full screen)

Its the the time of the year again when everyone breaks their healthy eating habits -or maybe just me- to buy McDonalds to collect those little monopoly pieces for chances to win prizes!  Basically each time you buy large fries or a large drink etc, you get 2 monopoly states or instant win chances which you stick onto a little monopoly board you can get at any McDonalds.  I think it is such a great marketing strategy because pretty much everyone (from kids to adults) has played Monopoly before and it just attracts you to want to buy McDonalds instead of other fast food choices to collect these pieces.  Its just like Tim Horton’s Roll up the Rim cups, but Monopoly is much more well known and it happens at around the same time every year.

Two days ago, my friend showed me a picture she found on Twitter:

This is how Alberta and British Columbia McDonald’s Stores decided to start off their Monopoly promotion.  On October 6th and 7th, you can go to any McDonalds Store and trade any amount of MONOPOLY money for 1 free large fries!! WOW. And with a free large fries, it also means you get 2 Monopoly states or instant win chances for free!

I was so surprised because basically anyone who has monopoly can go to as many McDonalds they want to trade in cheap monopoly money for free food and those states.  Or if you had 10 friends and you all go to one store for 10 large fries, you can get 20 states right there!  Wouldn’t their profits drop from giving away so much free food?  But then I guess because its only for 2 days, they would rather give out free food and have many people get started with collecting monopoly pieces, hoping they would have a greater chance of buying food later in the month.

I was wondering if this promotion was real, but yesterday I got my free fries so its valid! 😛

yumm…