A Little Journey in Life

For this post I decided that I would search around the internet to find some marketing-related blogging sites and see what I would find. I came across this blog that taught people how to create  popular online videos advertisements (http://marketing-expert.blogspot.com/). I’m sure we have all seen online video advertisement whether its the ad that pops up before you can get to the video you want to watch or a random or a random clip that plays every time you want to go to a different page.

One advice the blog mentioned was to keep the video simple. I have seen way too many advertisements that did not promote themselves very well because they used methods that didn’t really help promoted their product. For example, I have seen this commercial on television and online selling apartments somewhere in Vancouver. Throughout the whole commercial, all I saw were young people in bright clothes dancing and enjoying themselves. At first I thought it was a clothes commercial, but I though it was weird since they didn’t show any signs of their brand or logo, but at the end they showed a picture of the building and that was when I knew what it was trying to sell. In my opinion, it would’ve been better if they showed the inside of the apartment instead or show the special features the apartment comes with. This may sound a little too simple, but at least I would’ve known what they were trying to sell or the message they were trying to convey.

Hi, my name is Melissa. The reason as to why I’m taking the course is mainly because it’s in the standard timetable. Although I do not think this is the option I will choose in my third year, it would be wise for me to learn how this course links to other topics in other courses.

Having lived for 18 years, I have been constantly bombarded with advertisements. My favourite form of advertisement is when companies hand-out products to promote themselves. In one way it helps them since it does get their brand into the public, and this in turn helps me since I get something for free!

Another piece of information about me is that I hope to find a career related to sustainability or from a not-for-profit company. I’ve always been interested in environmental issues and I’ve always had a passion for helping others, so hopefully I can find something in that area.  

So I was reading this article that was written by an interviewer telling people what you should do before an interview. I think everyone knows that doing some research for the company you want to work with is very important, but I also believe that people actually don’t know how to convey researchto the interviewer to show how much work they have done to prepare for the interview. Lately there have been a lot of articles helping people find a job. Most of these articles contain the same basic idea. If a person truly wants to work for a company they probably already know a lot about the company, but I think most people are just looking for a job and not really truly want to work for a particular company. If someone does not know much about a company then that person is probably looking for a job only!

When it comes down to what I’ve learned in this class, I must say it opened my eyes to how the outside business world works. Instead of teaching us things that would not be useful outside of school, it taught me how to prepare myself for the real world. From building an awesome resume that will help me stand out from others, to essential interview skills, this course has taught me a lot.

This course has helped me realize my strengths, and to build on them. The result from my StrengthsQuest, told me I am a deliberative person. Even though I knew I am a person who approaches every situation with caution, the world deliberate would describe me a lot better than cautious. By learning my strengths, I’m able to learn and improve on them, so when the time comes and I have to present myself to others, I will know which characteristics I should point out.

The greatest lesson I’ve learned from someone else is to be honest. Once someone tells one lie then they will have to cover that lie with another lie when someone asks about it. This chain will continue on until someone finds out that the person’s words don’t match what he or she said ealier. Maybe at that moment, being honest may not feel like that the best option, however in the long run it will benefit the person. Instead of having to be careful of everything someone says and remember what they told others, the truth is the best.

Barefoot College is a social enterprise that educates illiterate women in India to become doctors, architects, and other professions.  Its founder, Roy Bunker, believes strongly about education and the impact it will bring. He also believes in the fundamental skills that the elders bring is an important aspect that should not be ignored.

 The students from his college are able to construct buildings and design water diviners even without a professional’s involvement. They attribute this to the sharing of knowledge and learning new skills from each other. The college solely relies on solar power, which is also a skill that Bunker is trying to teach to his students, in which they are able to bring this skill back into the city and apply it there.

This is an social enterprise because its main purpose is to help people in rural India to obtain the skills to help improve the standard of living. Bunker is a social entrepreneur because he is a person who strongly believes, and is passionate, in change and improvement on people’s lives.

information from http://www.barefootcollege.org/

Zappos, a highly sucessful company, displays properties of that of an entrepreneurial company.

First of all, they created a new method in which they were able to provide products and services that no company has done before. And it is because of this innovation they are able to generate great amount of revenue and keeping their cost low. 

Second of all, they were able to capture a much larger market since they were a Internet based organization. Because of being sucessful in this area, their speed of wealth creation was substantially quick.

Third of all the company structure, itself, is a noteworthy factor. The way of organizing the people, and their culture is a big risk. In a laid back environment there is always a possibility that employee may not fulfill their responsibilities to the best of their abilities, however, Zappos created an atmosphere that was pleasing to the employees which generated high job satisfaction leading to great productivity.

This post is basically applying the concepts that I’ve learned in class using MacDonald’s as an example.

MacDonald’s is a fast food restaurant with high rivalry. However, it has been a successful business because it is able to maintain the position of first in the fast food category. Although there are many other competitors among the fast food restaurants, MacDonald’s is the first at providing food at a cheap and convenient locations. Therefore, in summary, its point of parity is a fast food restaurant and its point of difference is that it is quick and cheap and there are many branches located throughout the world. If I had to do a very brief SWOT analysis on it, I would say its strength is that it has a strong brand name, convenient locations, and cheap food. Weakness is obesity is becoming a problem, need to find create more healthy foods. People are more health conscience therefore MacDonald’s is finding lowering sales. Opportunities-if Mcdonalds is able to create more healthy foods at the same price, it will have a major potential to grow even more. Threats – increasing competition. If I had to make a value proposition for MacDonald’s it would go like this -> To people who want affordable, fast food. McDonalds is a fast food that has affordable foods that many convenient locations to buy from.

With over half of all North Americans using the Internet as a primary source of entertainment as well as information, would it be beneficial for companies to develop their own pages online? In order words – is it essential?

Certainly, the majority of companies have a company web page dedicated to their goods or services. What’s the importance of this? Well, seeing how the majority of the people living in North America depend on the Internet to find information, getting the company’s web page on the web will enable the company to gain that much more potential customers. If you think about it, nobody ever looks in a the Yellow Pages anymore for phone numbers or addresses, everybody relies on the Internet via phones, laptops, and desktop computers.

In conclusion, yes it is necessary to have a company page online. It would provide information for potential customers. But creating a new web page would also mean hiring a person to create it, which also means spending money. One could think creating a web page is a strategy. In the long run it will help people identify who and what the company does and create a positive image for the company

Burger King has started to expand its market into Russia where its major competitor McDonald’s has already set foot in 20 years ago. This is a big risk as McDonald’s has already 240 restaurants in Moscow alone. The strengththat Burger King posses over McDonald’s would be bringing something new. Even though the prices in Burger King are slightly higher than McDonald’s, it is still considerably cheap in respect to other restaurants. However, like all the fast food chain restaurants, it will have to compete with McDonald’s which is not an easy task to do. Burger King making the decision to ultimately expand into the Russian Market also means that their research team has found that it is worth them to spend billions of dollar on establishing the brand name and opening branches all across the country. Not only does McDonald’s poses a big threat, other fast food restaurant looking ot expand into the Russian market is as well. Dunkin’ Donuts, one of the largest restaurant known for serving coffee and donuts are also planning onto expanding their market into Russia as well. In order for Burger King to succeed they must first be able to gain a good first impression and be able to provide good services that will keep customers loyal to them.

http://newsblaze.com/story/2010012114113100001.bw/topstory.html