After contributing tons of time into our video project, our team finally uploaded our video project successfully on vista. The video project is the outcome of our contribution on team work. During the whole progress from getting ideas, changing ideas to editing the video and finally producing the video, I have learned the importance of teamwork.

image from google

To me, teamwork is a process of learn by working with people toward a common goal, which makes dream come true. During that process we share the success and pain and become better afterwards.

Based on my past experience, the video assignment is quite different from other video projects I did, which actually requires deeper understanding of marketing contents and higher standard of how to communicate ideas effectively as well as more professional technical skills. I learned way more from this assignment than I could learn from textbook or any other assignments. I felt like marketing is a reflection of our daily life. What we did in this assignment is somewhat like advertising videos we saw from social media.

Overall, I am very engaged in the experience that share with my team on producing the video project. Team work really works. Everyone in our team contributes great efforts to make our assignment as well as we can. I can still recall those days that we worked closely as a family from morning to late afternoon.  In the future, I hope we have a chance to work as a team again:)

Can you imagine if Honda, a motor company, sells Honda in-vechile haircuts? Does it look like a petrol pump? Do you fall for it? If so, happy April Fool’s Day! (lol)

HondaHAIR (youtube video)

After browsing the brand channel website, I realized that in order to avoid being so “serious” and too “concentrated”, many brands show off their funny jokes on social media on April Fool’s day.

image from google

Brands such as Youtube, Honda, FaceBook and Honda play around the festival feature, which is a great channel to create more fun, innovation and deepen its brand culture.

Besides Honda, WestJet airlines introduce its free-child cabins. To provide a convenient way to travel without getting annoyed by children, WestJet’s customer service agents will take care of children and get them ready to their own trips by staying with luggages and other kids. The idea is quite fresh. The main purpose for this video is to get consumers experience WestJet website through browsing the joke website “www.westjet.com/kargokids”.

Moreover, Sony introduces a new Ultrabook:  the Sony VAIO Q series. The most tiny (sized as a quarter), pocketable and lightest ultra book.

image from google

It operates 8GB Ram, 256GB of hard drive and gets wireless service.

I found the idea of advertising on April Fool’s Day is neat. There are several advantages of doing this. Firstly, it is creative and attractive. The fact is that funny or creative stuffs are more easily for consumers to be reminded of. As we are received millions of advertising everyday, it becomes more vital for advertisement to stand out among millions of new information.  Moreover, it is money-saving. April Fool’s Day actually creates a free channel for businesses to spread out their brands as “reminders.” As a result, it attracts more consumers. Last but not least, some ideas released on social media are very ideal and attractive. By collecting reactions or responses from viewers after watching videos, companies are able to predict whether there is potential market for these new products.

When I read the posting from Xingye Cui’s Blog called “Lego’s expansion to China,” I realized that Lego planed to build its first factory in Shanghai, China.  The main drivers for the strategy is an increase demand in Asia and an attempt to save time during the process of ordering and delivering.

LEGO CHINA-GOOGLE

What Lego does well is its diverse approaches to both current and potential consumers such as lego homepage is available in 21 languages and its creative outdoor advertising . Today’s marketing becomes more complex, I believe how effective is the shopping experience becoming more and more important.  Lego takes the form of recognizable approaches to draw consumers’ attention, such as in-store displays and firsthand experiences. These arise consumers’ interests by imagining how wonderful it would be if they bring it to home and enhance potential sales by enabling consumers to touch and feel the products before purchasing. In addition to usual forms of promotion, Lego adds Chinese elements to its products. Since Chinese parents pay more attention on their kids’ education and they try to let kids learn more other than play more, Lego emphasizes its products as the function of educational toys.  Besides, Lego is still hard to dominate the toy market in China. The main challenge is its expensive selling price compared to other brands’ toys. Not many parents want to pay that much money (¥400+ in yuan) on purchasing lego toys while they can easily find similar toys in the market. Another issue is that consumers are able to find lego stores in shopping malls but seldom in supermarkets(I guess because its relatively high price.) Overall, Lego has great market in China.

Reference: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323415304578368161124637122.html?KEYWORDS=lego

image from google

Starbucks is not only recognized as a cafe shop, its more like a lifestyle brand. Other than fast food restaurants like McDonald’s which provides low-cost coffee beverages, Starbucks positions itself with experience of convenient environment and premium beverages. With its welcoming environment and soft music, Starbucks is always a good option for me to spend a few hours with friends or enjoy a cup of coffee sitting in a comfortable sofa by the windows, or concentrate myself on study. By contrast, McDonald’s consists with fast-paced modern environment with bright lighting and gay music. I can imagine myself just grab a fast meal and leave soon. I am not saying McDonald’s is bad. It’s just different market strategy. The way why I like Starbucks is its contribution on “human connection” while it values engaged user experience. Nowadays, people trend to focus on quality of life. I would like to value Starbucks as a symbol of lifestyle-the way to relax from stress. As The article “Why Starbucks’ customer loyalty is more lucrative than any Ad campaign ” stated, “Starbucks goes out of its way to make each location feel uniquely yours, and that builds brand loyalty.”

image from google

Video: People love the Starbucks experience (Youtube)

U-Pass (Image from Google)

I believe weeks ago most of us have voted for keeping the U-Pass B.C. Program. The new price for student transit pass will increase from $30 to $35 in May 2013, then $36.75 in May 2014, and finally would rise to $38 from May 2015 to April 2016. The article U-Pass prices increase for Metro Van students mentioned the proposed price increase is not ideal,  but the use of U-Pass still saves lots of money comparing with a regular adults transit pass.

I am a student who is really dependent on transit system, not only for my school life but also reflecting in my daily life. In weekends, It provides me with a relatively convenient way to hang out with my friends, shopping, visiting, etc. During weekdays, I experienced tough time in waiting in long line to catch a bus to school.  Especially during rush hours, it’s even harder to get on a vacant bus; and sometimes buses do not arrive on time. According to this, an increase in price will not be a good deal if transit program could provides students with more convenient transit environment. More buses during rush hours and arrive on time!  A term transit card instead of monthly one could be used to reduce waste cost.

The main ethical issue arises in this article is mistreatment of employees in fast food industry. In this article, fast food restaurants offer low wages and poor schedules for their employees. As a result, there is a high employee turnover rate in the fast food industry.

The main reason results in high employee turnover is poor management. Take Wendy’s restaurant as an example, it provides young teenagers with job opportunity that makes them enter into the workforce. However, Wendy’s treats unfairly in regards to working hours and line of communications between levels of management and employees. Employees who work for fast food restaurants are always getting overtime work, but only get minimum wages. Although the wage is low, younger employees still decide to work there because they can gain more work experiences to build a good resume; and they may leave upon graduating.

A friend of mine used to work for Wendy’s, she often got closing shifts and overtime working without getting extra pay. She told me this kind of cases happens all the time in fast food industry. I am thinking about fast food restaurants should fit their managements toward more success.

In conclusion, the main practice is to find ways to prevent employee turnover in fast food restaurants, such as fair pay, reasonable schedules, provide proper training,etc (suggestions from the article)

Article link: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/ways-prevent-employee-turnover-fast-food-restaurants-10277.html

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