From Assignment:

I think I am very lucky to have a wonderful marketing group. All the members in my group are hardworking, creative and responsible people, I would not love marketing if I did not work with those people.   Well, before I took marketing course. I always thought marketing is not important, because people in Sauder are fighting to get in to either Finance or Accounting, not many people are really into marketing. My friend even warned me thing like marketing means no job offer. I already  had prejudice against markting course at the beginning of the term.  Yet, after be in the class,I gradually feel that marketing is actually the core of the whole business.

The company that my group is doing is La Senza, which was a canadian based lingerie brand.  We did lots of research about the company, including history of the company , sales data, promotion strategy, website display etc.  I found I actually learn lots of things through conducting company research.  I do not know that Victoria’s secret and La Senza are actually owned by the same company-Limited Brands.  Another thing I learnt from the project is the importance of marketing.  All the products we see selling in store is based a group of people’s market research, positioning and segmentation.  It is a reflection of knowledge.  All the accounting or finance knowledge will be useless if their is no sophisticated marketing strategy, so do not diminish the importance role that marketing is playing!

From the overall course

After taking the course, I am quite determined to be major in marketing in my third year. Marketing is fun, it allows me to be myself, to be creative and flexible.   Yet, only being creative is not enough, I think  in order to be a good marketing person. I also need to learn to do things step by step, it is like you must know your target market and what your target consumers’ objectives before you can provide a anything “Creative”.  The process is complicated.  Marketing I guess is the most difficult thing because it includes a limitless of knowledge! Anyway, I love marketing and I am going to study a lot to gain knowledge in different field to become a successful marketing person.

I read Nancy’s （https://blogs.ubc.ca/huangnancy/）called “The apple Pricing Game”  and I found it is very interesting that she picked out how Apple differentiate itself from other electronic brands.  It is true that we rarely see Apple’s product on sale, even they have sorta promotion, it is basically like at the beginning of the school, they gave 100 dollar gift card to students.  Almost other brands, like Sony , they have their store in outlet, and online discount regularly. Even Apple rarely does any promotion or discount, it always maintains a good sale in the market place.   The price of apple’s products are relatively higher, people are still willing to their products. I think it is actually because of their never discount strategy makes their products stand out.

If we think about the luxury market, brands such as Hermès, Louis Vitton, Chanel, tiffany&Co, Rolex, They never have any in store discount promotion, but people still line up to buy their products.  Apple is using the same strategy here. I think if you never put your products on sale, people will just buy it when they need. In contrast, brands like, Gap, H&M, Zara, The north Face, Aldo etc.. , they often have  either store promotion, and their website constantly have on-sale products. I am not saying discount is hurting a brand’s identity.  Well, I think if customers know that your products will never be cheaper, they will not have to wait.  Customers can make up their minds almost immediately.  Whereas, if customers are aware that if they could wait for a couple weeks, they can buy it cheaper, they will not buy it right away.  Moreover, during the waiting period customers’s purchasing decisions change greatly. There is a greater chance they will find a substitute at a lower price range.   This never discount strategy reminds me about something called ” Limited Edition“，The scarcity makes it pricier.  Everything has its two sides, including the world of business.

Prices sometimes is not the main factor they customers make their decision.  If a brand can sell its products well without any discount, they should never put their products on sale.

Cited from: http://www.gettyimages.cn/showmid/6347011/BAMBUSTONE

https://blogs.ubc.ca/huangnancy/

I recently read a article called ” Voices of the defenders of grad school.” by Penelope Trunk who is a career advisor and popular blogger in the States.   In this article she summed up  seven reasons why people pursuit a graduate degree.  Then, she rebutes them with her own career experience and professional knowledge.  In a word, she thinks for people who are not in technology, science or medical field, it is worthless to going to a graduate school.  Instead of pursuing a degree, students could in fact use the amount of time and money that they pay for education on to creating their own business.  Even though  the business, most of the case would become  a failure, but the experience that you gain from your failure is priceless.     In addition, for those who are paid to go to grad school, (such as doing research for their profs, or earn a scholarship) should they go to Grad School?  The answer is still no by Penelope who argues that if going to school is free, why not do an unpaid internship which almost guarantees you a secure job in the future.

I do agree with what she said because she is very experienced in terms of career advising, Yet, I personally think most of us should still choose the Grad School Route.  As being a second year commerce student, I know the importance of having a variety of job experiences and internships on your resumer. Not everyone has them!  The work field is so competitive like a real fighting field.  For those who are neither top in academic nor networking, Grad School seems like a shield or dagger.  The only way to survive to not be abandoned is having more education, knowledge, and certificates. I am not saying that the experience and internship is less important compare to degree, they do important. Yet the tickets to them is much harder than spending another three or four years in school as you did for you undergraduate studies.  Therefore, why not attending a grad school?

Reference Blog: http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2011/08/29/voices-of-the-defenders-of-grad-school-and-me-crushing-them/?utm_source=sidebar

picture cited: http://wholeearthblog.com/2012/06/01/finishing-graduate-school/

Energy drink is extremely popular in today’s world.  Not only athlete need energy drinks to make them more energetic, but also students, especially universities students are really dependable on those drinks because its help them to pull an all nighter and stay enthusiastic.  There has been a huge increase in the energy drink consuming market.  According to the a study published in the journal Pediatrics shows that in 2003, 16% of teens drink energy drink regularly.  However, till 2008, the number increases to 35%.  Studies also shows that 50% of the university students consume energy drink one to five a month.   There has been a lot of arguments against the use of the energy drinks in many countries, but there is still no regulation towards the average age users.

Caffeine is the major ingredient in those drink, and it is widely known that access use of Caffeine will lead to various fatal deseases， like heart stroke, high blood pressure and sudden death.  A cup of 6.5 oz coffee contains 120 mg of caffeine, but the same amount of red bull would contain 250 mg of caffeine.  The ratio is bit too shocking here.   Many decades ago, Canada was the very few country that banded the use of caffeine to non-cola drinks, but today, there is no limitation or any regulation.  Health Canada declares that ” And ultimately, that is the role of Health Canada, based on the best information available at the time. And safety is the basis of their recommendation.”   So it leads people to wonder that is “Free Trade” really bring people with product on behalf of their health? or merely on the benefits of government benefits.

Besides the major ingredient Caffeine, there is a large amount of sugar too.  The studies shows that a bottle of 6 oz energy drink contains 34g of sugar, and an adult’ recommended amount of sugar is 30 grams daily. The fact is we are still consuming other foods, which means we will have a large overuse of daily 4 to 6 times.

Sources from:  http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/01/01/health/Inside-the-Energy-Drinks.html

                            http://healthland.time.com/2013/02/04/whats-in-your-energy-drink/

Whenever the Apple introduces a new product, there is always a stir. Some customers are particularly obsessed with buying the  latest technology product, even the fact is most of the time they do not really need them but rather just the desire to show them.  I believe sometimes, an apple product is an identification of your taste, your wealth and your life attitudes.  People from developed wealthy countries might not agree with me on this.  However, I feel there is a lot of time that people would judge you based on the phone and the laptop that your are using.  In a word, people choose to use Apple products, not only because they are easy to use and very convenient, but also is a way to differiate themselves, and a way to show wealth.

A recent rumor said that the apple company is planning to release Iphone6 this year. A big difference is that this time they would make two versions of Iphone. One is made of metal, the same material that have been applied on the previous  generations. Meanwhile, the apple will also introduce another  version, which will has the exact look as the metal one, but it would be made of sustainable plastic.  This price difference would be about 100 Canadian Dollars. Although Apple is aiming at a broader global market  here, especially targeting cell phone users from developing countries,such as India and China.  However my personal opinion on this is that Apple is being too ambitious here, and the result of that might cause a downfall to the company annual profit.   The reason that some luxurious brand offer exclusive edition items is because people with certain social status do not want to wear the same attire, or the same bags which you always see on the street. They want to be classified into a special group.  Same reasoning applied to the apple’s Iphone6 here. If Apple finally launch a product that the majority of the people could afford on the planet, there is nothing special about Iphone then.  Iphone will be just like a nothing special mobile  phone, gradually other electronic brands, such as Samsung, which is already competing with the Apple fiercely in the global market，might be the winner in this game.

Source: http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/431010/20130204/iphone-6-5s-release-date-rumors-specs.htm#.URILUFq1Yp0

I am crazy about online shopping, to be honest, 2/3 of my clothes, shoes, accessories, cookwares and stationeries are bought online.  However, Canada does not have a wide range of fashionable websites, even some stuff are good, it is still a bit more expensive compared to the US websites.  It is not cheap to mail stuff purchasing online from other country. Despite the international shipping fees, there is still  about 20% tax needed to be added. It is often like the price doubles the original price after adding the shipping fees and tax… The even more frustrating thing is that some websites do not ship to Canada!   Below are a few websites that I shop regularly, which do not feature international shipping.

About a year ago, I discovered that I could actually shipped my stuff to a US city,-Points Roberts.. this city features for receiving and ship goods for Canadian, especially people from Vancouver!  Shipped to Point Roberts let my enjoy the free or low shipping fees as well as the heavy tax! It is just soooo easy to go to this place, close to White rock. I live in Vancouver, it took me less than hour to drive there.  There are a few mail drop services in this city. They charge you $3.5 for each pkg.   Another happy thing is that the gasoline in the states are much cheaper!So every time I go to Point Roberts, pick up my stuff and then have my car fueled!  I really enjoy have my stuff shipped to Point Roberts, it is a US online shopaholic’s best friend….

Work cites:

https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=tsb%20shipping&aq=f&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=zh-CN&sa=N&tab=wl

http://www.6pm.com/shoes

Today, I want to share about two unethical practices by airplane companies.

It is well known that in some countries, esp in Europe that is much cheaper to travel by airplane than train.  Airplane is faster and convenient.  I would like to start off with my own experience. Last summer I visited Italy.   My last stop was Venice and I am leaving off from Rome. So I bought a airplane ticket online  from Venice to Rome. The price of the ticket is extremely cheap, it is like 40 mins, 35 dollars.  I knew before that in Europe how cheap the airplane ticket is but when it came to me, I just could not believe… I never think about there is any ‘extra charges”.  So my friends and I dragged our big luggage to the airport.  When we do luggage check in, we were notified that everyone passage could only check in one luggage and there is a weight limit. I was like, Ok then I will drag one luggage with me and backpack then( I have two small luggage). The at the security place, the women there let me in. Yet, before we on board, there came to the airport people, saying  one person could only carry one luggage, you are carrying two right now.  I was very angry because when I went through the security place the lady there just let me in..how come??? Anyone, I ended up paying another 55 bucks for my luggage.  It is quite hilarious that me as a person, costs 35 euros.  and my luggage took 55 euros.  Later on i was checking the airplane ticket and then I found a small line of words, like extremely small words at the very bottom of the ticket saying that one passenge on luggage…

I was very unhappy about the hidden fees from the airplane company. It is their scheme to print the luggage policy extremely small. It was their intention to have you neglect those words.. Why we should be pay for it? My lesson is never trust those cheap airplane ticket, there must be some hidden fees behind it.

So today, I was reading a piece of news from the Times, one really caught my attention.  The article is about that a airplane company called Samoa is going to charge passengers based on their weight!  The price is $4.16 kg for 1 kilometers.  I feel this is very unethical. The charging policy holds a strong prejudice for over weight people.   Why people who are fatter have to pay more?  It is reasonable to consider the question from a fiscal and practical point of view, but this practice can not be accepted it is http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/04/02/samoa-air-to-charge-passengers-by-weight/ against humanity in general.  Not only I think this is ethically wrong, but it will also cause lots of unnecessary troubles for the company. For example, if this pricing policy got approved, everyone passenge had to stand on a scale to measure their weight before onboard? But most people buy their tickets before they came to the airport, then does that mean when you purchase the ticket you would have to report you weight at the same time? Then people can lying in such issue.  In the end, I think this charging passengers based on their weight is unpractical and very stupid.

Reference: http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/04/02/samoa-air-to-charge-passengers-by-weight/

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