Month: April 2013

I’ve always had a great interest in marketing. I believe that with the right tactics and people, anything in this world can be sold. However this may result in ethical ad moral issues, and marketing is more than just selling stuff. Through this course and this assignment, I learned the fundamentals of marketing which include parts of psychology, sociology, commerce and many more disciplinary subjects.

The course project didn’t offer me anything new until the video making part. The first two parts were fairly routine at this stage of my education; do the research with group and edit, make up some logical assumptions and recommendations. However I had very little experiences making videos, especially in groups. The biggest problem I had was that due to the simple fact that editing can only be done by the person with the footage and program, that person had to do all the editing. I wanted to contribute, yet I didn’t know how. Should I stay with the editors the whole time while they edit? It would be time consuming for me and I don’t think my presence would have helped much anyways. Should I purchase the video editing software and offer to do the editing? The programs are pricey and it would be a waste of resources since my teammates had them already. In the end, I simply offered some of my advises and recommendations during the final meeting and left the editing to some of my teammates. I felt bad, and if this happens again I’ll definitely try to help in any way possible. Not having the technology is not an excuse, and I won’t make the mistake again.

I read my classmate Melissa’s blog about her doubtfulness in the blooming video marketing trend. She states that in order for a video marketing strategy to be effective, it has to go viral. Without millions of people watching it online the advertisements would be a waste of money. That’s true in some ways for large corporations that spends millions making these viral videos, but what about small companies that didn’t spend much making them? Saving money is the whole point of advertising on YouTube, because these companies cannot afford to be on TV. Therefore as long as the video is creative and informative, it can go viral regardless of the budget. And even if it doesn’t, it wouldn’t have costed too much anyways. To be honest, I find it hard to believe that a company will use YouTube solely as a way to market themselves. From what I see it’s a chance for companies to get extra publicity at a low cost, they will be satisfied with anything they get.

There is another reason for companies to make videos, to guide the people who can’t/unwilling to read and demonstrate their products and services with visuals. These videos won’t necessarily go viral and earn a lot of views, but they will find their way towards people who search for them, and it’s exactly the target segment companies desire.

And if everyone’s doing it, might as well join in the trend. It’s not good to lag behind your competitors in terms of effort.

I am a huge movie buff. I try my best to watch a film every weekend regardless of my schedule. It is a collection of all artistry within the human civilization, combining moving images with story and music seamlessly. I choose my movie mostly based on the International Movie Data Base’s Top 250 as well as reviews from the most prestigious critic today – Roger Ebert. Surprisingly, I have never read any of his blogs until this assignment and I can’t believe it took my this long to discover them. In his blog movie don’t stream themselves, Roger states the problem he sees with streaming over conventional laser disks. He doesn’t have a problem with the streaming industry itself, but he is simply worried that others will be affected.  It is problematic for the small productions since the profit margins for streaming is much lower, and companies that handles classical film restoration will also take a hit.

I agree with Roger that some industries will take a hit, and this new wave of delivery system will eventually take over. Just like digital cameras replacing conventional film cameras, technology will find it’s way in humanity regardless of the struggles of existing companies. The most important thing is that these companies find new ways to adapt to the evolving world, adjusting their marketing mix and strategies accordingly. There are still people who will always prefer hard copies over digital data, and companies need to find ways to capitalize on these people while satisfying the market demands. Independent movie markers also need new ways to promote and sell their movies, this will include streaming their movies online.

Humanity always find ways to cope with their changing enviorment. That’s why our species survived hundreds and thousands of years. Technological change will abandon some people, and that’s just nature doing its thing in evolution.

Rest in peace.