This is my second group-working project here at Sauder. The team is as diverse as I expected. Three of us are local, Briana, Adrian and Ali, and the rest three are international, Zoey, Katherine and me. Each one of us has different cultural backgrounds and personalities, and this diversity brought us a variety of ideas, especially during the brainstorming stage of every assignment. Working with people with different strengths and a diverse span of knowledge made everything much easier: there was always at least one of us had some knowledge to deal with the problem we encountered.

However, the project was quiet challenging and we had a “do-over” in the middle of the project. The entire thing was fine at first. But the further we extend on the project, the more problem exposed. We failed to finish the project with our original segment: the segment was not specific enough for us to develop the marketing mix. We spent an entire week discussing about the new segment and settled on Toyota’s pick-up trucks. Although the final assignment turn out to be quiet good, I think we should have picked a segment that we are more familiar to so that we will be able to dig into this segment a bit deeper.

Overall, I truly enjoyed this team experience and it was really nice to make friends with all of my team members. Nevertheless, I wish we have spent more time and efforts on the first stage of the project. In that way, we would have a solid start and a deeper understanding of Toyota, which would enable us to avoid the “do-over”.

A fellow classmate Laura Ryu wrote about how outlet stores can dilute the brand due to the fact that “the consumers with higher income sees less value in their products when they see consumers with lower income, such as teenagers, using the same products.” Nevertheless, I believe that with proper management, an outlet will not hurt a luxury brand’s reputation. In fact, outlets can even help a brand on the brand-expansion side.

Younger generations, who are not able to afford luxury brands at current stage of their lives, are a crucial target or a group of potential consumers for luxury brands. Outlets can help reach this segment because of their entry-level products at lower price points. These entry-level products such as beauty items and fragrances can help luxury brands establish life-long connections with customers at a young age. Also, selling last season’s items at a discount rate in the outlets is a good way to get rid of excess products and attracting a significant amount of new consumers in the same time.

However, outlets can really hurt the brand if they are not run correctly. The management level should be very careful when opening an outlet. Many things are needed to be taken into consideration, for example, location. If luxury brands choose to open an outlet store, they should do so where other luxury brands already have outlets as to not devalue the brand. Selling older products, instead of creating new ones specifically for an outlet, could also help a luxury brand maintain its status.

Original Blog:Outlet Stores: Is it a benefit?

Whether promoting products or pitching services, every business needs to advertise in order to establish connections with new, paying customers. When it comes to spending their marketing dollars, the possibilities are abundant and range from traditional print media to digital advertising.

This blog made the argument that online advertisement outperforms traditional ads. While I agree with the some of the advantages the writer mentioned that online advertising has over traditional methods, I believe that reading online may not be as effective or rewarding as the printed word.

One such study, published in 2008 in the Journal of Research in Reading, reveals that Physical manipulation (such as scrolling) distracts our focus from what we are reading, and the lack of physical dimension also seems to interfere. Print advertising is absorbed in a linear and user-controlled manner. People usually spend less time on each page when reading on tablets and computers comparing to when reading on printed materials. People using digital devices tend to tap, mouse, scroll, and swipe as they skip from screen to screen fairly rapidly.

                                                          Furthermore, unlike Internet and Television advertisements, which flash before our eyes and disappear in 15 to 30 seconds, printed advertisements stay on the page. This allows people who are interested in the advertisement to take a second look at the content of the ads and therefore increases the probability for them to actually make a purchase. A single ad in a single magazine may promote a product or service for months or even years before someone places the magazine in the trash. No other advertising method provides that much potential longevity from a single investment.

Original Blog:  http://www.examiner.com/article/how-online-advertising-is-outperforming-traditional-ads