The idea of 299 as a class that will prepare all students for great careers ahead by coaching public speaking, and going through the process of seeking employment, is great! First year students, many straight out of high school and with limited work experience, must get so much out of this class and appreciate all the information and tips.

Having been a university student now for 3 years and having had work experience after high school, I have already had experience in interview situations, going through informational interviews and networking, and so I probably didn’t get as much out of the class as was intended. That being said, I really did learn a lot about CAR statements and how to effectively phrase my CV and cover letter. So, hopefully those tips will prove effective now that I am waiting to hear back from many summer positions:)

The most influential woman in fashion is without question Anna Wintour, the editor in chief of Vogue USA. How has this tiny woman from England become the grand lady of fashion, who holds all of the strings of the industry in her hands?

I recently read an article in the Wall Street Magazine (the Wall Street Journal for cool people;)) about the reign of Wintour called Brand Anna. This article gave a little bit of insight into the secret life of Ms. Wintour, and how she has managed to make a multi-billion dollar industry run on her commands.

The article emphasizes the importance of the web of allies and connections in all areas of business, culture and politics that Wintour has built, and how crucial it is for her brand and image. Rarely can one person be influential in many areas of business and culture, but having influential friends, can provide you with all of that power.

It might seem that Wintour uses her connections and brand to better her status in the industry and make things happen for her self, but that is as far from the truth as possible. Wintour has generously rewarded all her passions such as the fashion industry, arts and politics. She has taken young designers under her wing and paired them up with major investors (Marc Jacobs and John Galliano), taken over the annual fundraiser for the Costume Institute at the MET in New York to support the fine arts, and raised awareness for political campaigns (such as Obama’s) by organizing and hosting charity events.

“You can make a film in Hollywood without Steven Spielberg’s blessing, and you can publish software without Bill Gates’s blessing, but you can’t succeed in fashion without Anna’s blessing”

The fashion industry has a face and a brand, and that face is Anna Wintour. Now that some personal branding we all should learn from and aim for. At lest I am!

Until next time,

Roosa xxx

Saku Koivu, one of the biggest hockey stars of Finland, stole my heart when I was only 6 years old. I lived close by to where Koivu lived and I would draw pictures for him even before I was able to write fan letters. Back then he inspired me with his impressive hockey skills, but as I have grown older and wiser I have realized that he has become a bigger source of inspiration than I could’ve ever imagined.

In 2001 Saku Koivu was diagnosed with a especially dangerous cancer type, the non-Hodgking’s lymphoma. Koivu beat the cancer in 2002, and was back on the ice in April of the same year. Cancer has such a strong power over its victims, not only physically but also mentally. Being able to firstly fight off the cancer and survive all the chemotherapy and other treatments, but also to be able to keep a positive mind set and stay motivated to keep pushing forward. That is truly inspirational.

Often times, when I feel powerless or unmotivated, I think about Koivu and his struggles, and I instantly get a boost of energy to keep pushing forward. I am reminded that there is nothing that can stop you, if you really want to go forward!

Hi all,

I recently read a blog post that my friend Vivian wrote about Rebecca Black and how she has, almost overnight, become the target of hurtful mockery and parodies due to her recently released single Friday. Just like Vivian, I can’t help but wonder what is it that determines which teen stars become the target of admiration and worship and which the target of hateful comments.

Vivian mentioned that what happens behind the scenes of these teen stars is almost more important than charisma or performance and singing skills. So, is the marketing and PR behind Justin Beiber so much different From Black’s or is there other factors that influence how responsive teens are to these artists?

I believe that the teen pop star industry is like any other industry; it also has a product lifecycle. I feel that the teen pop industry is definitely in the maturity stage with a lot of competition (Justin Beiber, Taylor Switft, Miley Cirus and the likes) and a limited audience. The only way to survive in the maturity stage, and increase the product lifecycle (in this case the length of the career) is to differentiate yourself from the crowd.

So, what does Justin Beiber have that Rebecca Back doesn’t? Bieber started of as a Youtube star portraying his self learnt skills as a singer and guitarist. His authenticity and home-made videos were something that teens hadn’t seen before, and could easily relate to. So, at a stage of maturity, doing what someone has done before (like in the case of Black) isn’t the key to success but rather doing something completely new and unheard of. Otherwise, you’re bound to head to the decline stage and exit the industry.

So, as Vivian and I have concluded, if you wish to be a teen pop star in 2011, better come up with something original and have a powerful and well structured marketing plan behind you!

Until next time,

Roosa xxx

We have been talking a lot about what are some of the qualities of efficient supply chains, and how Zara has managed to create such an efficient supply chain so that it serves as a competitive advantage for the company. I started digging a little deeper to find out, what exactly is the secret to this superior supply chain that Zara has.

According to a case study: “Zara’s Secret for Fast Fashion” written by Ferdows et al. Zara’s efficient supply chain is a sum of many well prepared and managed functions, one of the most important ones being the free flow of communication. The Zara retail stores are designed in a away that maximizes the possibility for consumers, sales associates and managers to communicate with each other. Zara has also decided to have its head design offices and manufacturing plants located next to each other in a small Spanish town. This way designers, marketers and manufacturers can exchange ideas and communicate in an effortless manner.

Zara also applies a just-in-time inventory system where small batches of inventory are delivered to the retail stores frequently. This does not only reduce inventory costs but it also boosts up sales; when customers see only one of their favorite garments hanging on the racks they know they will have to buy it there and then or someone else will.

Zara is very much vertically integrated in its supply chain by owning all of its retail stores, manufacturing plants and most of their fabric plants. This way Zara can get their products where they want them, and when they want them without having to negotiate with many intermediaries.

All of these factors allow Zara designers to watch these to die for Isabel Marant red leather pants walk down the catwalk in Paris fashion week, and have these copy cats hanging on the racks in no more than 6 weeks. Genius!

Until next time,

Roosa xxx

Sources: http://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/4652.html , pictures google

Today I was reading Annie’s blog at https://blogs.ubc.ca/annielei/, and I was intrigued to learn how extensively the cast of Jersey Shore are creating brand names for themselves, and marketing Jersey Shore inspired products.

Of course this branding and merchandizing of a TV-show or a character is nothing new. Most people are used to kid’s tv-characters and cartoons starting of as a book or a tv-show and then spreading out to toys, lunch boxes, video games and so forth and so forth. But what we usually are not used to is that, shows mainly targeted for adults, would participate in such merchandizing and branding. Sure there are C.S.I board games, but going all out is far more rare.

I started thinking that if there was one show that I would wish would start branding and marketing related products, it would be the Real Housewives reality series. Currently there are 7 separate series under the Real Housewives name; Real housewives of Orange County, New York, New Jersey, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Beverly Hills and Miami. All of these shows present powerful and mostly inspirational women living in some of the most exciting cities in the U.S. Despite the name of “housewives” most of these ladies are entrepreneurial and work hard for their big bucks and live a high life that they have earned.

I could just envision a series of self-help books (“How I made my millions”, “Combining work and kids”), talk-shows, cooking books and shows, clothing and accessory lines, or even beauty products that could easily be integrated to the real housewives brand. Over 5 million Americans tune in weekly to watch these ladies, why wouldn’t they buy additional products or watch these ladies in other contexts (say talk shows).

I think this would be a great opportunity to extend the Real Housewives brand, because to be honest, how long will viewers just be satisfied by  watching these ladies on the screen before they start requiring to get another dimension to their Real Housewives experiences. So Bravo, call me if you want to brainstorm 😉

Until next time,

Roosa xxx

Hi All,

This week has been so crazy on the school front with 3 midterms and a group project, that writing a blog post was pretty much the very last thing on my do to list…and only 9 hours after the deadline I got to the end of the list.

Anywho, today I want to talk a bit about packaging. I am a very lazy consumer, and rarely take the time and effort to research new products and compare alternatives. My purchases (atleas 80%) are made purely based on looks, i.e. the packaging. Call me superficial, but actually  it hasn’t lead to too many misses as you might think. All my everyday products, such as lotions, shampoos, vitamins, even food I have started using because of a nice package. Of course, initially I bought the product because of its looks, but then later realized its true quality.

There are certain qualities that you look for in a product, and if you haven’t used the product before, and if you don’t know if its good or not, you decide based on the packaging. Lets look at an example; body wash. Here are to types of body washes both doing essentially the same thing, cleaning.

If you are looking for a product that is moisturizing and good for dry skin, which one would you choose (and say you didn’t know anything about these two brands or products)? I would argue that most people, would say that Dove on the left is more moisturizing that Axe on the right. Why? Because of the white pure coloring, the smooth bottle shape is exactly what you want your skin to look and feel like. Clearly, just the outlook of a product can tell you so much more that any amount of fine print of the side of the bottle. Therefore, I would urge companies to design their products to look like what they promise to do.

So, if you’re ever in between choices, just choose the one that pleases the eye the most, and chances are it’ll do exactly what it looks like it would do!

Until next time,

Roosa xx

Hi All,

As a fashion enthusiast and serial online shopper, my daily web surfing route goes through blogs, high street fashion online stores and ends to the mother of all online fashion stores – Net-a-Porter. Net-a-Porter or more familiarly known as NAP, is a high-end fashion online retailer founded by Natalie Massenet in 2000. Natalie, who is a former fashion magazine editor and stylist, realized that women want to buy their clothes, whether high-end or high-street, quickly and without a fuss.  Many industry professionals were convinced that a designer online store, that offers some of the most exclusive and expensive labels out there, would never succeed but Massenet knew otherwise.

At the beginning of this year, when NAP was celebrating its 10-year birthday, they announced that they would open a new extension to their online retail business; a online clothing store targeted for men called Mr-Porter. This companion of NAP includes high-end designer brands that offer labels targeted especially for men.

As many other companies, NAP has realized the growing target market of urban men that care about their appearances and what they wear, and decided to tap into that market segment. The site is very masculine, yet sophisticated and modern, just like their target customer. Also, the clothes selected to the store are tailored to their ideal customer – classic and modern pieces many with a twist (in other words, you won’t find Ed Hardy from this store).

Extending its business to new target markets will increase the power that Net-a-Porter already holds as a leader in the high-end online retail market. Now, I am just anxiously waiting when the Baby-Porter will be launched;)

Until next,

Roosa xxx

Hi All,

If your are a culinarist just like I am, you must have been just as excited for the 9^th annual Dine out Vancouver as I was. Unfortunately this years DOV ended the past weekend but there’s always next year. For those of you that aren’t familiar with Dine Out, here’s the 411: Dine Out Vancouver is a two week period when Vancouverites are offered the chance to try out different Vancouver restaurants that offer a set menus of either $18, $28 or $38.

I think this is a brilliant concept, and is a really creative way to communicate the values of the restaurants to consumers. In my experience Vancouver is full of restaurants that offer very mediocre or even lower quality food but price the food like a Michelin star restaurant. When you pay $35 for an entrée you would hope that it also tastes pretty darn good, but many times customers end up disappointed. Once you have had a couple of bad experiences like this you are more and more reluctant to try out new places, and end up dining in Cactus Club or Earls.

Dine Out Vancouver allows customers to go and try out new places, even very high-end places that you could never normally afford, with minimal risk. $38 for a 3 or 4 course meal that is prepared by some of the best chefs in town is a bargain like no other. And if you don’t enjoy it, well then, at least you didn’t spend $200 on that same meal.

Once customers get positive experiences, they are more likely to go again, even outside the promotional program. Dine Out Vancouver is a great example of marketing that engages a large portion of an industry. Even though not all restaurants participate, the whole industry will benefit from customers increasing their dining out.

If you happened to miss DOV and didn’t get to try out new places, I’ll share two of my favourite places; Bistro Pastis on 4^th Ave. and Raincity Grill on Denman St.  Enjoy!

Until next time,

Roosa xx

Hi All,

I recently visited Drew’s Marketing Minute blog that was linked to us a week or so ago. I came across a recent post titled “Using personas to shift your focus to the customer”. In the post Drew highlights the importance of knowing your core customers, and creating personas for the product and advertisements based on these customers.

According to Drew far too many firms just say that their products are for everyone, and that’s never a good idea.  How could you ever come up with a successful product that appealed to everyone? What would ads that are targeted to everyone say? Most likely something pretty generic or cliché-y, at least according to Drew.

Once you have created an in-depth persona or several personas for your product, you will be able to create ads and campaigns that talk more about the persona than about the product. It is those customers that identify themselves with the persona behind the product or the ad that become the life long loyal customers of the firm – And that’s what every company wants.

Apple is a brand known for having a cult-like following amongst some of its customers. It has way more loyal customers and advocates than any other technology company I can think of. So, Apple must have a few personas that all of their marketing is based on. What could some of these personas be? Cool and hip teenagers and University students that want to be perceived as cool by their peers? Young at heart professionals that value high design over a higher than average price? Or tech-savvy computer enthusiasts that value high speed and no-viruses qualities of the computers?

Most likely Apple has used all of these personas and even more, modifying the personas as trends change and evolve. Can you think of any other personas Apple might be using?

Until next time,

Roosa xx

Pictures: Google