Here’s a link to the post I’ll be talking about. Julie begins by talking about how she came to UBC wanting to do International Relations, and is now applying for a Marketing major with International Business.

Funny. I’m quite alike.

For the longest time, I wanted to be an international corporate lawyer. Majoring in international relations has always been on my list. But, things happen in life and I realized that I’d probably hate my life if I were to actually be a corporate lawyer. More things happened and I landed in Sauder, and fell for OB. OBHR was my major for sure (good thing there’s no cutoff).

HOWEVER, this was before I took Comm296… and from the semester I’ve had with Tamar, I have come to realize that she markets marketing very, very well. Now I’m completely in a dilemma! OBHR VS. MARKETING!? (except doing both will be amazing, so I’d probably do that). I just found it very appealing the way Tamar didn’t just teach us, but she sparked interest in so many students (not just me!). Now that is true marketing skills in action. Now I’m just hoping that the OBHR department and its profs get on it and try to spark some interest  in students… so that I’m not singled-out when I say I like HR.

Toyota Recall

Everyone’s aware of the Toyota Recall incident, thanks to extensive media coverage, and even a CEO interrogation by the Congress (very rare for foreign CEO’s). Many things went wrong, from the delay in response to the crisis, to the week-long disappearance of Toyoda, the CEO of Toyota Corp. After all that, the company is embarking on a long journey towards rebuilding what made Toyota, Toyota; safety, durability and superior value.

In my opinion, they’re still being very, very quiet. People may wonder why they’re not doing more to advertise and appeal to consumers to bring back confidence, but I think they’re doing the right thing in being quiet, and staying low. What they need right now is a couple years for the public to forget the incident and understand that the company has made changes to improve safety. Besides, an article by the Harvard Business Review shows that Toyota has enough brand insulation, to top up consumer surveys as an overall superior brand.

Last lecture was interesting for me, since it made me realize how different marketing could be from country to country, even between two highly westernized societies. Being Japanese, I always knew we were a little odd in many ways and thinking back, there were examples like this:

KitKat Seasonal

In general, Japanese people get bored of things quickly. New, fresh and innovative things MUST line up on shelves in order to do business. The picture has three seasonal and “limitied edition” flavours, Yuzu (Japanese citrus fruit), Jasmine tea and Matcha Green Tea. Seasons play an enormous role in Japanese culture, and a regular KitKat year-round will just not do for the consumers there.

No, this is not an April fool’s post, considering its about five days late.

I just wanted to blog about how fun it was reading articles on April 1st by big companies like Google and Starbucks. Google came up with something called along the lines of “Google Motion”, where the article stated that you could “pose” or use body motions to control Gmail… through your computer’s webcam. Starbucks, on the other hand, wrote an article called “Starbucks Mobile Pour”, where they said they would have an App on smartphones for customers to use when they needed coffee. You’d send a request, and a Barista would be zipping through the city on a scooter (not the motorized one…), and deliver you a fresh coffee anywhere.

Asides from the fun my friend and I had tricking someone into using Google Motion, I think these two articles were a great example of the use of social media and the internet to spark some fun interest in the company. You expect a lot of companies, especially the larger ones to be conservative and safe when it comes to public relations, but these two companies, in my opinion, did a good job having fun and making it seem like their companies did things out of the ordinary, ordinarily. Good brand image, at least for people who like to have a couple laughs.

UNIQLO is an expanding, global fast-retailing company originally from Japan. With 60 years of history in the apparel industry, they aim to compete against big names such as the Gap, H&M and Zara. Their main focus is casual apparel that incorporates high technology fabrics and high street fashion. With a product development strategy strongly based on consumer feedback, their goal is to become the number one clothing retailer in the world.

What I found interesting about their global expansion advertising strategy was to use the phrase “From Tokyo to the World”… and in the case of the Parisian Flagship store that opened in 2008, they used “UNIQLO – From Tokyo to Paris”. According to the marketers at UNIQLO, their aim was to break apart the notion of “foreign companies entering our markets”, and make it  more of a connection between global metropolitan cities like Tokyo and Paris. I felt that they spent a lot of time considering how consumers in different countries and cultures would feel about a Japanese brand going global. In my opinion, they did a very good job opening their stores in countries such as France, UK, Russia and China, where a phrase such as “From Japan to Russia”, would have caused unwanted stereotypes to come up in the minds of consumers.

So, in business there’s typically no second chance. You either succeed or fail, and regaining trust, funds and the will to take the same risk again, is usually frowned upon. Especially when we start talking about hundreds of millions of dollars.

This really doesn’t apply I suppose, when it comes to tax payer’s dollars.

The Village on False Creek (courtesy of http://www.vancouversun.com/business/2614051.bin?size=620x400)

People in Vancouver still seem to be hyped about the 2010 Winter Olympics that swept by us last year. It really made an impact to Canada’s culture and sense of unity, but the biggest impact was not in terms of warm fuzzy feelings, but cold, hard cash. The biggest failure seems to be the Olympic Village condos that cost taxpayers $742.6 million.

Now, they’re going for their second chance at getting these condos occupied, but they’re also going at their second attempt to market these condos, and the whole area surrounding it as well.

Originally called “Millenium Waters”, the marketers started by simply changing it to “The Village on False Creek”. They’ve also slashed prices by about a third, and people seem to finally notice that a whole new neighbourhood is about to develop. Studying marketing, it seems hard enough to effectively market consumer products, but I can just imagine how hard it is to market an entire condominium complex AND a prospective neighbourhood. On top of that, they’re having to reposition everything and erase the words “failure” from the images of Vancouverites. Hopefully they succeed in making “The Village on False Creek” somewhere attractive as Yaletown and Kitsilano, since it’s really us taxpayers desperately holding onto the short end of the stick.

Source: The Vancouver Sun

I recently came across a wonderful blog (err… Googled “marketing blogs” so that I could get this requirement over with 😀)

Logic+Emotion is a marketing blog written by David Armano, SVP at Edelman Digital

(http://darmano.typepad.com/logic_emotion/2010/12/

comsumerism.html)

This blog post is an insightful one about the Post-Consumer Era and how marketing has adapted to it. Pictures are worth a thousand words. I wish they were worth around 300 words… and my Thursday nights will just consist of uploading a picture…!

Marketing Eras: Courtesy of "http://darmano.typepad.com/

This era seems to have really taken place after the economic crisis of 2008. Banks and lending money is no longer like a neighbour lending sugar. People are definitely considering the question “Do I really need this?”, when they buy another product or service. “Saving” is now in the vocabulary of consumerists who previously bought the biggest, newest and fastest, even if it meant they were in debt.

As cautious consumerism takes over, the economy will definitely not be able to maintain itself. Consumerism and the matching marketing strategies have grown the economy at an explosive rate, and unprecedented growth follows with unprecedented collapse. As shown in the image, consumers now are seeking more from the little amount of money they can gather, and they are socially reluctant to consume, dispose, consume and dispose.

So, if it’s now so hard to convince mass consumption, will marketing disappear? Absolutely not, because people are nowhere near living a self-sustainable life. Consumption of produced goods and services will continue, except now companies will have an even tougher time convincing consumers, and must focus on less media, more word of mouth/social networking to gain trust. And, they will no longer be able to depend on exponential growth; they must develop a strong, life-long bond with their supporters.

A&W Logo Facelift

I wonder how many people actually notice these things, but A&W’s been pushing for a facelift lately. The logo’s one thing they changed, but in Canada; Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal’s got some new “urban A&W’s”…

There’s two on Robson, and one on Denman in downtown, and I happen to live about a 2, 3 minute walk away from one of the Robson locations. I must say, I’m impressed. High ceilings, urban furniture, bold designs and even self-serve kiosks where you can order without any human interaction :)! Just how we urbanites like it. (?)

With McDonald’s renovating restaurant after restaurant in a scramble to capture all the consumers they can get, I’m guessing A&W had no choice but change their “nostalgic” (outdated) restaurants! I’ve always had a thing for A&W food, it’s quite good; like REAL food in comparison to McDonalds.

What is peculiar, however, is that A&W seemed to have their target segment as the Baby Boomers, who loved the nostalgic feel of the restaurant, with a diner-look and Elvis playing in the background. On the other hand, these urban outlets seem to be targeting Gen X, Gen Y and maybe even some younger generations, with its updated interiors and overall experience. Is A&W losing its stance? Are they panicking? I wonder what’s next for A&W, because I love their food, but are they now a FRESH brand? Or are they still locked up in the Baby Boomer era?…

So, after many years battling the worst public transit system on earth (Yes, you, TransLink…) I have decided that I will be getting a car in April.

I’ve spent considerable amounts of time on the internet researching MANY different options, and my heart is quite set on this little fellow in the image below.

Courtesy of: http://www.scionvirginia.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/2011-scion-iq-600x398.jpg

It’s called the Scion iQ. The Scion brand was actually introduced in our marketing textbook as well, known as a unique “youth car brand” and “The average age of Scion buyers is 30, which is the youngest in the industry” (auto.msn.com). As a brand under Toyota, they specifically target the “Gen Y”-ers by heavily depending their marketing on strategies such as:

• TV commercials with the latest pop songs and thrilling action
• Facebook, twitter and other social media as main outreach
• Online games and contests (eg. win a free Scion) that are interactive
• Concerts and events in major cities

These strategies seemed to really attract American Gen Y-ers, as shown in sales for the first several years of Scion as a brand (in States since 2003). In recent years, not so much. I suppose it has to do with the products losing excitement, but also that maybe Gen Y-ers (especially ones still in school), are really not getting any richer these days.

There are many reasons why this car appeals to me, but the two big influential factors are:

Family – I’ve grown up with Toyotas

Social – I say social, because as we get more socially aware about impacts on the environment, I would expect (or hope) that people feel guilty to drive around, especially when it’s just one person in the car. Such a tiny car like this is surely going to cut down on that guilt for me. I suppose it’s a better social “image” I present of myself than driving a huge SUV.

So it’s super late at night/early in the morning.

I’ve procrastinated through my entire day to at least start ‘studying’ and I never did, so this is a wonderful and effective way to allow me to go to bed with the comfort in knowing that I did something today.

Now, right to the point. I have a low GPA.

Judges of life: “WHY?”

Judged Riki: “Well… I do work almost full time…”

Judges of life: “YOU SHOULD QUIT”

Judged Riki: “um, No.”

The reason I say no, is because I firmly believe that experience > transcript, just as Tamar talked about in her first lecture (about not being asked for transcripts, ever!).

So what do I do?

I’m currently a Pricing Manager at Old Navy (a brand of Gap Inc.). No, I am not a trained economist and do not decide the prices of our 1000+ different merchandises we carry. I’m actually responsible for what we call at Old Navy, the “marketing” aspects of the store. This encompasses in broad terms… the execution of marketing and pricing strategies set forth by the company. Although at times I do make my own decisions on the way to execute these tasks, my job is mainly structured by the marketing department down south in San Francisco head office.

The main tasks I perform are:

• Posting marketing elements in-store, such as window decals and posters, and using social media/mall websites to extend the reach.
• Weekly posting of in-store signage for promotional prices (averages around 150 different promotional prices for varying merchandise every week)
• Price reduction (markdown) of an average of 4000 units every week and devising strategies to display/organize clearance areas to effectively sell through these low profit margin items

So, in essence, I’m pretty much covering the marketing mix, or the 4 p’s while doing my job, except I really don’t decide the Product or Promotion, I’m simply setting up in their Places and carrying out the Pricing strategies… At the end of the day, to be honest I’m not doing this job and in turn taking time away from school, to perform these tasks. I’m doing it more for the experience of being a “manager” in a multi-billion dollar company, meeting amazing people, and getting the sense of what it really takes to work in the real world.

Now this may not seem like the typical “marketing job” you would think of after taking Comm 296, but I mean, someone has to EXECUTE the strategies you devise in your office chair right?