Category: COMM296

As I left my last marketing class today I feel kinda mixed up. I still don’t know whether I like marketing or not — or whether it’s the one I least dislike, but one thing I know for sure — I learned a lot. During the day I missed classes because I was too ill to go, I always wonder on what they’re discussing in class — this class is the most interactive class I’ve had since I graduated high school. And I love it. I’m a rather slow thinker so I don’t really contribute, but listening to everyone’s thoughts about the topics we discussed taught me things about the person. their brand.

Whether we realize it or not, we have our own personal brand, and we have to market ourselves just like McDonalds and Starbucks have to in order to reach our target market. In our case, one of the target market will be the employers of those companies we really want to be in. Personal branding is what differentiates you from every other job seeker out there. It is a compilation of — but not limited to — your accomplishment, passion, vision, talent and contributions to the society and how that makes you a unique person that the company should hire.

it is crazy how we now live in a super-branded world and how we have to cope with it… I still don’t get it. And how branding ourselves makes us look like just another product. The wonder of marketing…

One article I really like about this personal branding is this one by Tom Peters. It really describes on how to build your personal brand and the steps to it. 

As much as I want to deny this one fact, I have to admit that I spend most of my time … procrastinating. Stalking people on Facebook, Google-Hangout-ing with my friends, tweeting and re-tweeting people’s updates, read articles in mashables, StumbleUpon-ing, you name it. There’s this short article in mashable.com that made me think as I read it right after it’s published.

I realized that G+ and Facebook are different in so many things. Google Plus is very new compared to Facebook. In fact, if we look at the consumer behavior curve, we know that for now, it’s the innovators and early adopters who use the service. It’s a little too early to say whether G+ is doing great or not compared to Facebook, since we have no idea what happens when the rest of the consumers join G+ (and look around, and more often than not, leave). On the other hand, Facebook is in the heart of everyone despite all the criticism on their safety features. It took Facebook more than just a few months to build customer’s loyalty to what they have today.

So what does that have to do with companies having another extra social network page to look after? Or, which companies should start advertising in Google Plus and which should wait until more people join? Well, now that Google Plus is full of innovators and tech-savvy people, it will be great for companies whose target market are part of these people… However this does not mean that the other companies should not advertise here too; because now that Google allows everyone to sign up for G+, more (variety of) people will join and it will increase the chance of brand exposure.

Anyway. All that being said, it’s still to early to judge on which will conquer the other or whether the two have different so-called market, but for now, they’re still too similar to be differentiated yet different to be considered as the same thing. My conclusion? Like another blogger said: “I don’t know — I’m too busy sitting ringside, watching the Facebook vs. Google+ bout and enjoying the show.”

cute gif on google vs. facebook:

edit: I like this blog’s analysis about G+ and Fb.

This blog is a response to Young’s blog post.

First of all, congratulations for your new Playbook! It looks better than the one in Chapters display for sure 🙂

Anyway, based on what I read in the news for the past few weeks, it seems that RIM denied the fact that Playbook is not as popular as other tablets due to some missing apps and functionality, and say that the price cuts in various stores are part of their holiday promotions (which is a little off since it’s past the ‘back to school’ promotion, and way before the ‘thanksgiving/halloween season). I do agree that more people consider buying Playbook after the price went down, but there are some other people who decided to wait for another few weeks until Kindle Fire, the tablet manufactured by Amazon, is out. Though Kindle doesn’t have camera and microphone and it has limited features compared to the iPad or even the playbook, quite a few people still choose Kindle over Playbook simply because it is still cheaper than Playbook’s discounted price.

In conclusionnn… I think RIM’s move to cut the price of Playbook will be more effective if it is done a few months earlier, before Amazon announce the launch date of Kindle. That way, there’s not that many tablets that the market can compare Playbook to (because Kindle is currently their biggest competitor), and considering the features that Playbook offers (which isn’t that bad actually), they can get more people to buy their product.

If you’re interested in a not-so-biased comparison between Playbook and Kindle Fire, you can check this website.

Starbucks. When I first came here I was surprised at how common Starbucks is. Back home you can only find starbucks … probably one in every 5k or so. Here, there are literally one in every street corners downtown, and around five (if I’m not mistaken) on campus. What makes Starbucks that famous?

I searched on the internet about Starbucks’ advertisement since I rarely see their ads in billboards or anything like that… and yet they keep on establishing more coffee shops, not only in the USA but also all around the world. Here’s one that helped me understand Starbucks’ marketing strategy. From this one simple poster I can deduce a couple of their marketing strategy. Basically, they place a big emphasis on the coffee’s quality and customer satisfaction, and they also provide a place to go to for people in between their work hours and going home, a cosy place for young adults to hang out with their friends.

Through fulfilling the customer satisfaction part, they make a very good use of the oldest marketing tool that exists: word of mouth. They let their products speak for itself. Starbucks also make themselves part of people’s culture… by being present in their everyday life. Exactly why they have lots of Starbucks store.

It is undeniable that people’s comment about something could affect the society’s decision about whether they should go to McDonalds for some $1 coffee, or go to Starbucks and spend $4 for a cup of Caramel Macchiato… and that’s exactly what I do.

Old Spice | The Man Your Man Could Smell Like

I just have to put that in my list of the most effective ads ever. Though it is somehow corny, most of my guy friends fall for it, they are now regular consumer of Old Spice, and not only that, quite a few of them memorized the whole ad, line by line. What’s worse? They … actually smell good T___T

Anyway. I’m a second year student at Sauder, from Indonesia, an IB graduate, and if I’m not mistaken, I have no choice but to take COMM296 to graduate from Sauder. I still don’t know what I want to major in, though, so I’m looking forward to this course and what it has in store for me. My experience with marketing has been mostly as consumers, and it involves getting annoyed by people calling your phone during some ungodly hours… offering credit cards, and after 10 minutes of chatting, told me that I’m not legal yet so they cannot process the application (does this kind of sales really works…? I’m hoping to figure that out from this class). All this, until I learned that marketing is not only about promotions and advertising; it also includes researches and analysis.

I don’t know much about marketing just yet, but one thing I know — and learned — from my friends and colleagues about marketing that I think is true: never underestimate the power of Twitter, Facebook and word of mouth.