A Little Journey in Life

Has anyone questioned the marks the professor gives? I have nothing to say about math where there’s one definite answer, but what about those essays? What about those one-page written assignments?

I’m not really one to question their judgement, but something has got me thinking. How exactly do you grade a paper? According to some, it’s a form of art and math. And to that I say, “It depends on how you feel!” Well not exactly – but I’m sure there’s always a point where you certainly feel that way. My point of view is that it depends on whose paper is before yours. If the paper before was bad, it would make your paper look comparatively better. Everyone knows this; there’s probably studies done on this.

I am a shy person. I don’t like confrontations so guess what? No, I didn’t question my professor upfront but honestly I was in my head. So here’s how the story goes…

An essay type assignment was due. I read the criteria and it told me to make some assumptions. (No, I’m not going to state what course/class this is. Don’t want to get in trouble. You never know what trouble you can get into from stating your opinion) So I’m supposed to assume that the person I’m writing to (not my professor) knows their company very well and so I’m not supposed to write obvious things such as their business model, trends, competitors etc. Taking this into account, I wrote my proposal and I got my mark back. Lets just say it wasn’t very good.

The following week we were able to meet with the professor to discuss about my progress in class. I met him and asked him what he wanted. When I said that’s exactly what I wrote, he’s like “well that didn’t come across.” In my mind I was thinking well duh – I assumed you knew already! Of course I didn’t say it, but I could see him realizing something (I think he knew he did something wrong. And so he made that “give me context thing”). Now being a shy person I’m not going to say anything after. But sometimes I get so angry at people not admitting their mistakes (I’m sure I can justify that “yes, you made a mistake” comment). This is only the first assignment and to make sure I don’t have future conflicts, I’m going to deal with this myself and this is kind of releasing my anger.

Any similar experiences?

The distribution strategy as stated in class is to get “the right product to the right place at the right time”. These words are much easier said then done. Companies are spending millions of dollars to make sure that they know a close approximation as to how many units will be sold so that they will know how many to produce, and then spend more money on market analysis to know where to sell the product will help them get the highest profit, and then the crucial part would be able to deliver the products on time. To know how many products and where to sell a company would have to do market analysis, but this can be done internally, however the hard part would to delivering the product to certain places within a specific time. Most companies do not have their own shipping system so they have to rely on other companies. Because of this, shipping and delivery times are out of their control. Many incidents may happen during shipping times and delays could happen, which could affect customer view on the company in which a huge loss of revenue could occur, therefore finding a  trustworthy, reliable shipping company is hard and worth it.

One example, I can think of right now is my HR textbook.  Because the bookstore for obvious reasons, don’t want extra copies of the textbook in the store they decided to order fewer textbooks than they should’ve. So first of all the number of textbook demanded was not accurate. Then for place, they couldn’t have gotten that wrong, since the only place to sell this textbook was at the bookstore. However even after the professor urged them to purchase more textbooks, they only purchased 20 copies when over 80 students needed this textbook. When they finally did a second order after the 20 copies one, everyone was already required to have purchased them online or by some other method. The bookstore was told they would get the shipment before the a certain day, however for some reason the shipment was late due to a lack of miscommunication and now the bookstore is stuck with piles of HR textbooks that hopefully studnets will buy for the next term. This incident clearly demonstrates how the lack of communications between the two parties and how important it is to create a clear, reliable way of communication.

In class we were shown the video made by Greenpeace about KitKat chocolate bars using palm oil and disrupting the homes of the orangutan. When the man in the advertisement opened the package I knew that something like the finger of a orangutan would appear, but never did I though “blood” would spew out when he ate it. I don’t consider myself to be easily disturbed, but that was really gross and distrubing. Of course, seeing how Nestle was forced to make a statement of how they would change their ways shows how successful this advertisement was.

My point of view: Yes, these types of commercials are extremely effective, but should groups like Greenpeace make these advertisements? I have mixed feelings about this question. I consider myself as a environmentally-conscious and animal-conscious person. I care about the environment and how animals are being treated. On one hand, I am very happy that the marketing campaign was very successful and forced Nestle to stop what they’re doing, but on the other hand, I don’t think it was necessary to create such an extreme advertisement. It was wrong to replace the KitKat bar with a finger and especially with fake blood inside it. I think morally, it was wrong to do so, but I can also see how people can argue that it was because of these two factors that made the campaign so successful. In conclusion, advertisements like these do draw a lot of people’s attentions, but those who were already involved would’ve been aware of these types of problems long before. If these groups could spend more time educating the public, then they would have more long-term support than those one time marketing advertisement successes.

In today’s class we talked about ethics in marketing. On the topic about Nike advertising during the World Cup even though Adidas had the sponsorship for the event, I actually don’t really think that there is anything wrong with what Nike did. I thought it was smart for them to be able to use the event to make a large marketing campaign without having to pay the large amount of money like Adidas did to get exclusive right. Of course, from Adidas’s point of view, this may seem very unethical as they had to pay all the money to get the rights, but Nike took advantage of that. I can see both sides of the argument where what Nike did was ethical or unethical. Obviously, being a student and not have not been working for any of the companies that has used and been ambushed, my point may been seem naive, however with the knowledge and the point of view I have right now that is the conclusion I have reached.

Price deception is also another topic that interests me. I’m not sure if this is true or not, but for the past few years the Nestle Halloween chocolate bars have shrunk, but the price for the box is still the same. Of course, as a consumer I would be angry, however since I have no choice but to purchase it anyways, I will have to accept that fact. However, for those people who still haven’t realized or know, is this ethical for Nestle to do that? My point of view is that if consumers are ignorant and don’t realize the change then they do deserved to be “tricked” by the companies. Ignorance is not a good excuse to be angry when someone realizes something after the change has been implemented for a long time. However, with the economy being in recession I can understand why companies have to reduce to this, but they should at least inform the consumers of the change and not take advantage of their ignorance. In summary, although I think it’s unethical for companies to use price deception as a strategy to earn more revenue, the consumers also have their responsibility to be aware of everything that happens around them as well.

I stumbled across a classmate’s blog (https://blogs.ubc.ca/brandonregier/) talking about how some companies are selling supplements that can “build better bodies”. Reading about this topic reminded me the weight-loss program Jenny Craig. They are a very successful weight loss/management, nutrition company. I think the marketing group of the company did a very good job in creating the marketing mix. First of all their service is much needed in a growing obese-population in North America and their timing was perfect to enter the market when people were becoming more health-conscious. Jenny Craig identified the customer’s needs and delivered the program at an appropriate time. The center locations are situated in large communities so make sure it can sustain itself, and provide convenience to the customers living in the area. And while providing a much-needed service, along with perfect timing and location, the company also made sure to promote. Television advertisements were one of the ways they promoted. If I remembered correctly, they showed clients that successfullylost a substantial amount of weight and a testimony from them. This appeals and motivates individuals that looks likes person on the advertisement before the program in hopes of looking like the person after the program. Although I am not sure of the success rate of the program, but the timing and promotion Jenny Craig made led to their success in the market.

The death of Steve Jobs was not sudden, however very sad. Everyone knows that the only reason as to why Apple is so successful because of Steve Jobs. I was browsing on other classmates’ blogs and I came across one, that was talking about Apple as well. (https://blogs.ubc.ca/michellealexandriatek/)

First of all I would like to talk about Apple and the brand itself. Currently, in all my classes, I have failed to not see a Mac computer in any of my lectures. I remember one of my professors did a poll and it ended up with 50% of the students had Mac and %50 had PC. Apple has created the Mac and gave the image of cool, and creative to all its users. Other Apple products also give off the same feeling.

Most of the people who own a Mac, also own a ipod, or itouch or iphone. This shows that many people are loyal to this brand. As said before, brand loyalty is very important to a company as it takes a lot less money to keep a customer than to attract new customers. Apple makes sure that customers stay loyal to their brand by not only providing them with creative, innovative products, but also improves them as time and new technology appears. By providing updated version of a product, Apple is able to earn a great amount of revenue.

Another interesting strategy Apple uses, is that it doesn’t have many discounts on its products. By doing this,  it gives off the feeling of a higher-end company that doesn’t have to rely on sales to clear its inventory. And by buying products from this company, it also gives the customer a higher-class feeling.