Jennifer Chan's Blog

After reading about Apple’s distribution strategy in China from Randy’s blog and looking at the incredible demand for Apple products in Asia, it’s surprising to me that the company had not already widened their distribution channels in China. I definitely agree with Randy that Apple needs to gain market share in the Chinese market by partnering with China Mobile Ltd. (the largest carrier in China). In fact, Apple now actually has made plans to expand into China by offering the iPhone China Mobile Ltd’s network, which in my opinion, is definitely a good move for Apple.

With this, I’d like to do a simple breakdown of Apple’s channel selection and design for the iPhone in China.

1. Customer/Market factors: I think the most important factor here is economy. Considering that China’s economy could soon surpass the United State’s, there is a huge expansion opportunity available for Apple to capitalize upon.

2. Product factors: I believe that Apple has the chance to use exclusive distribution in the Chinese market because of the high demand for the iPhone and size of China Mobile Ltd. If Apple can successfully partner with China Mobile Ltd., it could not only enhance the company’s brand image, but would also be able to justify a higher markup on the phone.

3. Organizational factors: In terms of size and resources, Apple currently has more than enough resources to take on the market in China and I think that this expansion would definitely prove to be a worthy one as well.

4. Competitive factors: Although Samsung has had the upper hand in the Chinese market by partnering with all carriers in the Chinese telecommunications market, Apple’s single partnership with China Mobile Ltd. could build up the exclusivity of the Apple brand and increase desire among customers.

After consulting all these factors, I think it would be most beneficial for Apple to select an indirect distribution channel using China Mobile Ltd. as an exclusive retailer in China. Since Apple already has plans to develop this partnership, it’ll be interesting to see how everything plays out for the company in the coming year.

Check out some related articles here.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-11/iphone-fails-to-gain-china-share-as-samsung-lead-triples-tech.html

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-03/-apple-fever-to-push-stock-to-1-001-within-year-analyst-says.html

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2012/03/26/today-in-tech-apple-in-china-and-todays-biggest-te.aspx

http://www.thestar.com/business/article/1152459–apple-ceo-tim-cook-on-china-mission-to-clear-up-problems

I decided to write this post to comment on Celine’s blog and also to comment on the discussion from class. This topic is actually really important to me because I have been involved in the Free the Children group at my high school for several years. However, for this post, I am going to try to comment only on the marketing implications of the campaign.

Although the two seem rather unrelated, the state of this campaign actually reminds me a lot of the life cycle of a product.

The time that the campaign was first launched is equivalent to the introduction stage for a product. A considerable amount of effort is spent on promoting the campaign in hopes of garnering interest and raising as much awareness as possible, just as promotional spending for a product in its introductory stage is high.

In its growth stage, the campaign is viewed by social activists (early adopters), and passed onto the general population (early and late majority). The organization continues to put an effort into promoting the campaign, but the bulk of promotion is done by people who view and pass on the video and the message.

The campaign has yet to hit the maturity stage, but when it does, it means that most people will have already become educated about the campaign. This is when the organization should try to increase the “usage among present customers” (the actions among people who have decided to support the campaign).

In its final stage, the campaign will experience decline, when people are no longer interested in taking actions to find and arrest Kony. (Hopefully, this stage occurs after Kony’s arrest!) At this stage, the organization would have to invest heavily in promotions to re-gain the interest of the public.

Although this comparison of the product life cycle and Invisible Children‘s campaign is not perfect, I find it really interesting that the concept can be applied even here. I think this proves that marketing principles can be applied in much of what we see in our daily lives. Other than products and services, marketing is used EVERYWHERE, in the most obvious or subtle ways, whether we realize it or not.

Please watch the KONY 2012 video if you have not already and visit the website for more information.

I apologize in advance for this long post, but I didn’t want to leave out any of the commercials!

The Superbowl over the weekend showed some highly anticipated commercials. These million dollar commercials – literally – created just as much buzz as the big game itself, attracting even non-football fans. Does high exposure guarantee great results for the company?

Maybe not. AdFreak breaks down the five most debated commercials of this year’s Superbowl in this blog post.

The number five spot belongs to Chevrolet’s commercial depicting a post-apocalyptic world where Chevy Silverado drivers survive and mourn the death of their Ford driving friend. Ford claims that the data actually shows that their F-150s are the superior truck, and requested Chevrolet to pull the ad. In my opinion, Chevy didn’t cross any lines because it has evidence to back its claims in the commercial, so it shouldn’t be considered deceptive promotion.

Next is Samsung’s commercial for the Galaxy Note which was meant to poke fun at Apple fanboys, but the ad’s focus on the Note’s stylus has become a point of mockery instead. Although this seems to be negative, I feel that if Samsung really has a quality product on their hands then its merits will eventually be reflected and this exposure will become definitely beneficial for them.

In third place is Dannon’s commercial for Oikos Greek Yogurt which is not very special other than the fact that it is under fire for practically duplicating a song by John Butler Trio and ripping off an old 7-Up ad. I feel that this was very careless on Dannon’s part. If Dannon knew that their commercial was anything close to an old commercial, they should realize that the audience would be able to find that old commercial and accuse them of copying it.

The runner-up is a political campaign commercial by Pete Hoekstra accusing Senator Debbie Stabenow of her free-spending ways which are harming the American economy. The commercial shows an Asian woman thanking Senator Stabenow for pumping money into China’s economy, in her poor English pronunciation. In today’s multicultural societies, this commercial will, without a doubt, be viewed as racist and offensive to many people. This marketing strategy is obviously ineffective and sure to fail.

The winner of commercial controversies is Chrysler’s “It’s Halftime in America” spot featuring Clint Eastwood delivering an inspirational message to rebuild America’s economy. The commercial has been charged with being corporate advertising – a re-election manifesto for President Obama. I somewhat agree with what is expressed in the blog. While watching the ad, I didn’t really feel that it had a whole lot to do with Chevrolet, but rather, the rebuilding of America and the leadership it should have in order for the rebuilding to happen.

Are these costly advertising opportunities worth it for companies? Or do they miss more than they hit? I think the lesson here is that marketing, especially when presented to large groups like for the Superbowl, must be carefully planned and carried out so that the intended message is the one that the consumer receives.

The example that Phaedra brought up in class today about how BP’s reputation completely went down the toilet due to the oil spill incident reminded me about an example from the textbook. Most people would think that what happened to BP’s reputation is not surprising at all due to the magnitude of incident, but what about something much smaller, like a blog post?

The example at the end of Chapter 4 in the textbook describes three instances where a simple complaint post online stirred up national attention causing the companies to publicly deal with issues that were initially quite small.

Jeff Jarvis, a web blogger, is a prime example. His blog series, entitled Dell Hell, complaining about his frustrations with his Dell computer and Dell customer support was linked all over the internet within days after being published and it was not something that Dell could simply ignore or wish away. The original posts have since been deleted, but check out the archives of Dell Hell here and the follow up article that Jeff wrote for Bloomberg Businessweek two years after the original posting.

DELL SUCKS. DELL LIES. Put that in your Google and smoke it, Dell.

Jeff’s name might be well known around the net these days, but back in 2005 when he wrote the series, Jeff really was just a blogger like any other. But his posts were able to garner so much interest and attention that eventually Dell had to respond to his complaint. In the year following the post, Dell dispatched technicians to reach out to customers to help solve their computer problems. And since then, Dell has set up a 40-member team for the sole purpose of outreach to customers and communities via Twitter.

I’ve always thought of marketing as a really powerful and influential tool, but it seems the playing field has leveled now that consumers have been granted the same degree of power through use of the internet. The case also clearly demonstrates the importance of customer relationship management.

Hi everyone, welcome to my blog! My name is Jennifer and I’m a second year Sauder student intending to specialize in Accounting. I was born and raised in Vancouver and have always loved living in this beautiful city! I am currently living at home with my parents, my older brother and my younger sister, so I’m one of those people you see always stealing zzz’s on the bus. (:

The reason that I’m taking this course, as everyone knows, is because it’s a required course for second years, but I would have chosen to take this course regardless because I’ve always found marketing to be very exciting and fascinating. Although I’m not exactly looking at a career in marketing, I realize its importance in the business world and feel that it is something that all commerce students should have ample knowledge about. My experience with marketing has generally been as a consumer. I think all the ads I see on a regular basis has actually further developed my interest all the different aspects of marketing and how they work to develop a successful marketing strategy.

For my favourite ad, I’m going to go with the first Old Spice TV commercial featuring the continuously changing sets.

When I first watched this ad, I knew it would be an ad that I would not soon be forgetting and probably seeing multiple parodies of on Youtube.

A personal tidbit about myself is that I regret not taking dance as a kid. I really love the way someone can express themselves through dance and I wish I could do the same, if only I was a little more coordinated!