After doing three projects with my group, I had seen both benefits and risks of group assignments.

By having to work with our classmates, we had to be able to communicate and compromise, which I believe starts becoming very important in business since it is all about interacting with another person, whether it be inside or outside your company. As an exchange student, I was surprised at how everybody participated in their group project. In my home university, I feel as though people are less engaged in both class participation and group work. We were able to make something better than what we would have individually since we all had a say in the assignments and give out our skills and knowledge.

However, group work may also mean inefficiency without well communication. (It is also difficult when you turn out to be the only non-Chinese speaking person in the group…) Moreover, if specific people have the knowledge and skills, others may become free riders or just becomes more difficult for them to participate as much. My classmates seemed to have more knowledge on airplane companies and were in control whereas I felt slightly lost. I would do everything that was distributed to me right away and put effort into it, but I was not able to do any extra.

From this experience, I was impressed with my classmates, and felt I could’ve done better. I shouldn’t have been scared I would say something wrong, and even if I was not sure of how to do certain things, I could have volunteered and asked how to do it. How much knowledge and skill you already have may change the role in your group, but it is no different that every individual should dedicate the same amount of effort. In fact, the more you need to absorb, the more you should be engaged and asking questions.

Jours Apres Lunes- lingerie for girls (from Iris’s blog)

After reading Iris Zhou’s blog on “Jours Apres Lunes”, a lingerie line for children, I was surprised that the values of the new generation have become so different. When I was an elementary student, I used to go to the playground and play with mud. Now little kids- especially girls- can’t seem to wait to become mature enough to do what adults do for fun such as dressing up and wearing makeup.

from 2008 New York Times article- pedicures and more at Eleanor’s primping party in Manhattan

What is scary is that companies like Jours Apres Lunes have noticed this change too and see children as a good target segment. I have seen girls about the age of ten getting their nails done in Tokyo. A 2008 New York Times article also brings up how there are now pedicures and make up kits available for children.

My concern here is how manipulative these children are. There is a high risk of companies who target such a segment to face marketing ethics. Should elementary girls be acting older wearing women lingerie and cosmetics? With current marketing strategies that use misleading advertisements of distorted conceptions of beauty, I believe this will lead the new generation to be even more self-conscious of their appearance. Suppose these marketing strategies continue. What will happen when this new generation becomes marketers? Generation after generation, due to technology and globalization, cultural values have diffused in both positive and negative ways that will affect the way we view the world and companies’ marketing strategies.

My parents generation could not have imagined pedicures and lingerie for children.Soon enough, I fear that there may be plastic surgeries and tattoos available for children where it actually affects a child physically. Before companies start targeting vulnerable children, companies should reconsider their marketing ethics all together.

<sources>

https://blogs.ubc.ca/irisyxzhou/

Cookpad Logo

A website company in Japan succeeded in getting over six million users (95.1% of which are women I might add) and dominate the market share- all without the help of advertisement. We’ve learned the importance of advertising for a firm’s success, so what happened in this case?

“Cookpad” is a website for users to share their own recipes for anyone to see. I believe the key to their success what that the owner of the company had a strong and clear mission statement- the first step to an effective market plan.

Sano Akimitsu, the owner of Cookpad, believed that cooking good meals make people secure and happy, creating a ripple of smiles. Therefore, he would only take actions that “brought people joy from cooking” and not make good choices, but the best. He had turned down tempting deals and offers from investors since they did not directly contribute to the mission statement. Sano knew that it was most important to connect and build trust with the users, and would always consider what is best for the customers. He focused on making the website as simple and useful as possible, and to keep a positive vibe on the website. This determination brought users to spread positive words about Cookpad and that is how it grew to the size it is today.

I was impressed how Sano did not take any of the offers because Cookpad has a lot of potential for profit. He knew that if Cookpad stopped fulfilling the ultimate goal, users would decrease and have an adverse effect on the company. Instead of costly advertisements, Sano held recipe contests and events for families to cook together which would teach them the joy of cooking. Before heavy advertisement, a company must have a clear vision of their purpose.

Uesaka, Toru. The Business of Cookpad: Six Million Female Supporters. Tokyo:Kadokawa SS Communications,2009

When you walk in downtown Vancouver, you can walk without anybody bothering you. If it were in Japan, advertisements come flying at you. Coming to Canada has made me realize the how heavy marketing in Japan relies on tissue-pack advertisements. On every street or near station exits, there are people handing out tissue packs that have advertisements on the back.

This type of advertising began in Japan in the late 1960s and is a popular type of marketing because it could cost as little as 10 to 25 yen with a high possibility a person would look at the advertisement. According an Internet survey by Marsh Research, 76 percent said they accept free tissues. As we have learned, it is crucial for a consumer to at least know about its brand for it to be within the consumer’s evoked set. People hand out these tissue packs as part time jobs, and since their job for the day is done when they finish handing out all of their tissue packs, some could be quite annoying and desperate to hand them out. As a pedestrian, yes it’s annoying when they block your way until you get that tissue packet from them, but at the same time you feel as though you can never have too much of tissue packets.

My question is, why isn’t this form of advertising popular in other countries? It has been spreading overseas such as New York but the main market still lies in Japan. Two reasons I could think of is that paper products may not be as cheap as it is in Japan, and certain areas may not be as safe. However if these two requirements are fulfilled, I believe tissue packets are an efficient way for advertisement.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2007/08/21/reference/pocket-tissues/#.US_bkKXEHaI

http://www.corecommerce.com/blog/the-importance-of-building-a-brand-name/

Yes, a brand name is important as Kris Graffagnino also mentions in his blog. Companies invest millions of dollars to make a brand and advertise it, but to what extend would they want to do this?

When you spill orange juice on the table, you’d ask for Kleenex instead of tissue－ without giving much consideration that what you asked for a brand and not a product. Some brand names have become so overused by consumers that they replace the product name: Band-Aid, Sharpie, Jell-O, etc…

Isn’t this a success? First of all, this shows how much this product has influenced its culture and how recognized and trusted it is. Secondly, this could capture consumers from older generations or consumers who do not wish to risk getting anything new. It automatically seems to be part of the consumer’s evoked set thus have higher chances of being purchased.

However, according to a 2012 April article in Taipei Times, companies fear its brand name becoming generic even though they invest in so much to be a recognized and acceptable brand by customers. This is because some companies have lost its trademarks for the brand name, allowing companies to legally use it. For example, aspirin, escalator, yo-yo, and zipper lost its rights as a trademark.

Kleenex and Band-Aid have tried different marketing strategies from becoming generic. They have put “Kleenex Brand” and “Band-Aid Brand” as their label on their product so as not to be forgotten that they are still trademarks.

Every day new products and new brands are emerging in the market. Now whether the brand name would stay as one all depends on how the companies balance their brand name as one that is well-known and at the same time not been taken for granted

http://www.corecommerce.com/blog/the-importance-of-building-a-brand-name/

http://inventors.about.com/b/2006/01/29/when-a-brand-name-becomes-generic-genericized-trademarks.htm

Energy drinks may seem like the ideal drink for getting energized, but is it? In 2011, an eighteen year old boy was taken to the hospital due to sudden heart arrhythmia after drinking eight 16-ounce cans of Rockstar in a couple of days- and this is just one example concerning the negative health impacts energy drinks may have.The energy drink market is growing at a fast rate and has been successful, but markets must consider such ethical issues when marketing.

This is what I saw at a convenient store in Japan last summer.

It basically says to drink Red Bull whenever, and that its ingredients will do wonders to you. It mentions nowhere about the dangers of consuming its main ingredients-excessive caffeine and sugar- even though there are many reports that prove this.

In Japan, energy drinks sit next to bottles of Coke and tea because they came in the market as “carbonated drinks” instead of getting permission as “quasi-drugs.”  This is because the quasi-drug industry in Japan had dominant drinks and made it difficult for other markets such as Red Bull to enter. By looking at these advertisements, it seems that it is not entirely the consumers’ responsibility for the consequences but also the industry itself and the stores that sell them.

The market targets the young generation who are constantly busy and ready to get energized. How could marketing improve for vulnerable consumers such as themselves? More specific labeling, clearer explanations on the effects, classification as quasi-drugs, age restrictions…some countries such as France even ban energy drinks.

Yes if the industry considered these ethics, it may not have grown as fast. However, it may have had more respect, and trust from more people across the world. Which would the market be better off in the future?

sources: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/the-dope-on-energy-drinks/#axzz2INixAmBJhttp://bbtuniv.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-73.html

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