Working on the Best Buy project in a group is an excellent learning opportunity to me. I really appreciate the chance to work with 5 other incredibly awesome group mates(Matheus, Henry, Max, Faraz and Jin).

The whole project has taught me how to make an entire marketing plan from the beginning till the end. Information searching is the first and also the vital step of the entire project. I was in charge of searching the background information of Best Buy for our first group assignment. The most difficult part of this task was to find the most accurate statement among a huge amount of relevant information. In order to do well in this part, I read a lot of relevant information and put my own analysis into all of them. After very careful consideration, I integrated all the indispensable information into a background report in a clear and brief way.

When we were doing SWOT analysis, I also did a lot of research online about the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of Best Buy before every group meeting.  During group meetings, we  exchanged our information and thoughts and completed our first two assignments very efficiently.

For the video project, although I was not the main role in the entire video, I participated in every group meeting and tried my very best to complete my part of the video. This video is the crystallization of  every group member’s  effort. Here, I really want to say “Thank you and job well-done”, everyone!” 🙂

Branding is a very important component of a company. When you think of Nike, you might think of ” Just Do it.” When you think of TOSHIBA, you might think of ” Leading Innovation”. The fact that you know the brand and can associate positively with the brand will enhance the value and satisfaction you get from using the product or service. As a result, almost every firm spends a lot of time and money on branding.

To earn a good brand name, strong brand service is needed. McDonald’s, for example, is very well-known for its fast service, consistent food taste and quality and consistent pricing.

Another very important point for good branding is to understand the hidden valuable attributes and ideas that are different from the majority of the similar business.  A special branding is also the key to successful branding.For example, Lululemon is using a very unique branding method. Nike and Adidas want their consumers to associate words like“speed, comfort and high quality“with them. Lululemon also builds its brand as high quality  sports wears. The special part of Lululemon, however, is to let consumers to associate the brand name with a healthy and active way of living. Lululemon has successfully achieved this by letting its staffs work out every morning before starting to work in Lululemon retail-stores, which is really unique among so many famous sports brands.

Searching for information is the second step of consumer decision making process. If a person what to buy skincare products, it is very probable that he (she) will search the websites of different skincare brands, trying to evaluate between the alternatives.  According to the blog, color is a very important factor to make a website visually appeal to a company‘s target audience. “Color instantly sets off visual triggers that point to a big yes or no in the mind. That means color alone can make or break your marketing. ” 

I cannot agree more. In a time-poor society, people usually judge the value of a website based on their first impression. Different colors give people different feelings. Since a different color can change a person‘ s feeling towards a website in a few seconds, companies should do more research about their potential consumers and choose the most suitable color for both their products and web page. From my perspective, the demographic background plays the most important role in this  decision making process.

A successful marketing campaign needs a lot of research on the target market. Although color is a very important factor for marketing, there are still a lot of other elements too. I believe that  marketing is like a communication between buyers and sellers. If sellers are able to let the buyers feel comfortable and satisfied, then buyers are more likely to purchase their products.

Link: http://eleventygroup.com/site/2013/04/09/6-reasons-color-can-make-a-big-difference-in-your-marketing/

Although market search is wildly used before companies develop a  new product line, there are a lot of disadvantages associated with this method.

The first disadvantage of market Research is that this method usually consumes a lot of time. A typical market research takes up to six to seven weeks. Whether a company is using existing employees or hiring a company to conduct the market research, it is easy to assume that the research is very costly due to the big amount of salary and other required payments caused by the long research period

Moreover, sometimes the market researches conducted can be misleading.  For example, people usually walk into Walmart and Best Buy to see and try what they want to buy and use Best Buy as products‘ showrooms. However, they actually buy it in another online retailer(usually via Amazon). It is really shocking that Best Buy even creates new store formats to combat this “showrooming”. This is caused by A study by comScore in April 2012 shows that 35% of respondents claim that they have bought products in Best Buy because of the showroom.  However, how much are they doing this? The respondents simply avoid to say that they are taking advantage of Best Buy to embarrass themselves during the survey. The market research above, apparently, is very misleading.

Therefore, companies need to be careful and try their best to choose the best market research method in order to reduce market research disadvantages. Hopefully in the future, some new market research methods will be created which are faster, cheaper and better.

The development of social media has changed marketers’ behaviours significantly. Before the popularization of the Internet, a lot of marketers were able to take advantage of social media to control potential consumers’ views about their products. However, with the development of social media, especially the Internet,consumers are no longer receiving information passively from marketers. Instead, they start to share their opinions towards different products by commenting on various brand’s official website, blogging, etc.

The conversation for marketers turned from the one-way nature of traditional media to a two-way dialogue that could not be ignored. Social media has shifted the conversation so forcefully that consumers have an unprecedented level of control over brands, rapidly turning themselves into a brand’s best advertisers.

From my perspective, “consumer-advertisers”  are way more powerful than the real advertisers. The first reason is that “Consumer-advertisers” are more objective towards the products that they have used. There is hardly any mutual benefits between them and the producers. The second reason is that”Consumer-advertisers” are consumers who have used the products themselves. Therefore, they tend to be more convincing and are regarded as more trust-worthy.

Since what consumers think really matters, I think that the new marketing trend should be focusing more on the searching engine optimization (since most consumers usually just read the first web page), instead of just paying attention to better TV advertisements.

After reading my fellow classmate Jia Ling’s blog, ” UNIQLO Shows Basic Isn’t Boring”, I have to say that I cannot completely agree with her point of view.

I am a fan of Uniqlo myself. One of Uniqlo’s greatest competitive advantages is that its clothing material is really soft and warm. Also, nowadays people are getting more and more price-sensitive, and Uniqlo clothing’s perfect balance between quality and budget happens to meet this social trend.

However, I am really worried about the further development of Uniqlo. Since the production of clothes is retricted to limited styles which is interpreted as  “Made for All”, it is very hard for Uniqlo to meet the demand of Japan’s younger generations. In Japan, a person’ style is a very important evaluation criteria among young people.  A person with “style” are generally more respected and loved among young people in Japan. I think It is hard for Uniqlo to gain popularity among the young.

Since Uniqlo clothing has a great balance between quality and budget, it can meet buyers’ functional needs. How about buyers’ psychology needs? From my perspective, a lot of people buy clothes because they want to look stylish and rich. The simple design and the low-pricing  can hardly give people the psychological satisfaction that they are pursuing.

Link: https://blogs.ubc.ca/jialing/

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Can firms just use one common marketing approach and apply it both mono-cultural and multicultural society?

This may work well in the mono-cultural society since mono-cultural society is the society where almost all of the citizens share a similar heritage & culture. People living in the mono-cultural society tend to have similar beliefs and understanding. When it comes to the multicultural society, however, the single-strategy approach may fail to establish deep connections with consumers. Multicultural-society citizens come from different culture backgrounds. The cultural difference is a lot more than different languages.  People coming from different countries have very different values.Therefore, the consumers living in a multicultural society may not feel that the brand understands them uniquely if a single marketing approach is used. 

So, how to make multicultural marketing decisions?

To make marketing effective in multicultural markets, firms need to do more than just translating their advertisements into specific languages. Every firm has to know its customers’ cultures so well that it can integrate its products’ history into consumers’ beliefs. Then, the firm’s product will be very attractive.  I believe this is the main reason why a lot of big international firms are hiring employees coming from different ethnic backgrounds.

Burt’s Bees is an American personal care products that describes itself as an “Earth friendly, Natural Personal Care Company” making products for personal care, health, beauty, and personal hygiene. It is well recognized by consumers as an very ethical brand because of its no testing on animals policy, sustainable packaging, the ‘Greater Good’ foundation and so on.
The brand has been using a lot of promotion methods to let consumers know that it is ethical and takes social responsibility very seriously. For example, Burt’s Bee posts a quiz every day on Facebook with the incentive that participants has a one in fifty chance of winning a Burt’s Bee gift basket for free. Most questions are like “Do Burt’s Bees products test on animals?” “Is the packaging of Burt’s Bees products made from recyclable materials?” or “Is Bart’s Bees XX lip Balm made from 100% natural ingredients?”, etc.
Moreover, apparently, Burt’s Bees has also spent a lot of effort in it’s products’ packaging. If you are using a Burt’s Bees lip Balm, you will notice that there are many little patterns on the package telling you that the lip balm does not test on animals, the packaging material is recyclable and so on.
Burt’s Bees has also set up ‘The Greater Good’ foundation, in which they help non-profit initiatives with 10% of website sales. This foundation is also a great marketing strategy to show people that Burt’s Bees is an ethical brand.
The ‘100% Natural’Burt’s Bees brand has gained the intangible sustain value over a long term of advertising.I believe that this brand has great potential in the future because of recent customer demand trends for organic natural products.In the future, Burt’s Bee can even produce organic honey.

Modern business organizations become more and more dependent on their information systems to deal with the complexity and changeability of the context (markets) in which they operate and consequently their internal organization structures. Up-to-date, complete and accurate information has become a necessity to survive in an increasingly competitive world. Developments like dynamic cooperation networks, mass customization of products and services, and end-to-end process control require automated means to control operational business processes, for the simple reason that humans cannot oversee the entire operation in an efficient and effective way anymore. Consequently, business requirements to information systems increase at a dazzling pace.

For example: Jax Auto Shipping creates a cargo tracking system, which is available to customers of freight services.

The features of it’s information system are:

• Freight services online
• Cargo tracking
• Arriving cargo documents register
• Generation of reports
• Consumer rights
• Calendar module
• Documentation module

Ranging from basic computing technology via communication technology and a broad spectrum of data and process management technology to complete frameworks for enterprise information systems and e-business systems.  Jax Auto Shipping will get feedbacks quickly and cheaply. Consequently, technology( information system) push forces have a major influence on a firm’s current developments.

When Bill Drayton founded Ashoka and coined the term “social entrepreneur” in the 1980s, it was because he believed in the power of a person with a good idea tackling not just a social problem, but also the systemic forces that cause such problems.

Below is a collection of some of the best quotes from Bill Drayton on entrepreneurship and why this approach matters, if you’re trying to change the world for the better.

• “Social entrepreneurs are not content just to give a fish or teach how to fish. They will not rest until they have revolutionized the fishing industry.”
• “Social entrepreneurs don’t want to help. They want to change the world”
• “Social entrepreneurship is very contagious because people deeply and centrally want to express love and respect in action.”

The old growing up/education paradigm entails mastering a body of knowledge and an associated set of rules with the assumption that one can then settle into a specific job and life role for the rest of one’s life (be it a baker or broker).  This model no longer works.  

Other people see a social problem, we can create and manage a  social entrepreneur to become a change-maker of world.