Atfer the Marketing Plan assignments, I learnt that teams will increase our productivity when we learn the ways of how to communicate, build consensus, and solve conflicts. Teams will also become stronger when we learn the ways of how to form group performances, solve group problems, and evaluate teammates. Further, it is one thing to create a team, but quite another to create teamwork. Teamwork is the soul of a team. However, it doesn’t mean everybody doing their own part or everybody being able to do each other’s jobs. It’s more means to a synergistic way of working, where the sum is greater than the parts.

And, I found I still need a lot of improvements in English skills, both in speaking and writing. My writing skills are the worst in my team. My teammate, Nancy, helped me edit my parts a lot to make them clear and concise during the assignments. I have to  thank her here. Thanks, Nancy. I really appreciate it!

Before I took this course, I knew nothing about Marketing. From my old point of view, marketing was just finding an effective method to sell company’s products. However, what I have learnt after this course is marketing is the process of communicating the value of a product or service to customers. It is a critical busniess function for attracting customers. It’s not as easy as I think. Marketing is on my option list now. 🙂

According to Jason Schreier’ blog, after financial performance failed to meet yearly expectations, EA’s CEO John Riccitiello stepped down on 18th March 2013. EA should put more efforts to adjust to a changing world where consumers are turning to mobile devices and cheap or free games instead of buying expensive packaged titles.

From my point of view, EA Mobile’s pricing strategy is very brilliant.

Electronic Arts uses the freemium pricing model for many of their casual mobile games in order to increase trial before purchase. With this model, consumers can download and play games for free but spends money to buy game props if they want to have a better gaming experience. Since the casual mobile gaming market is highly competitive with a low barrier to entry, this greatly improves the chances of download and trial.  Many games are released on the mobile market every day, with multiple free knock-offs, which creates a challenging environment for developers. Consumers are unlikely to pay for a full version of a product before trying it first, when they can easily download a similar game for free. Although there is a concern that price wars will undermine industry, according to Harvey Elliott, VP and GM of Electronic Arts, unlike its competitors, the company creates quality games that offer a definite value for its consumers. What gamers are seeking is high quality entertainment and recognisable brands such as the franchises that EA offers. While there may not be initial charges associated with EA’s “free” games, microtransactions have proven to be an effective method of gaining revenue, especially in the growing tablet market for females. According to a study of online gamer behavior by PlaySpan, females are almost three times more likely than males to purchase virtual items or content and they outspend males in virtual goods purchases. With casual games, the differences are even greater, with women 40 percent more likely to make purchases from 1st party publishers.

http://kotaku.com/5991181/ea-ceo-john-riccitiello-steps-down

After reading Darren’s blog “Are Boxing Day Deals Really as Special as they are Advertised???”, I have a same feeling that more and more companies are becoming dishonest now. They just play with consumers, give them a fake deal and pretend consumers get a lot of benefits from purchasing.

Compared to this Boxing Day case, what I have met in China is much more tricky. In Shanghai, some shopping mall have similiar events like BOXING DAY at the end of each year. Before the event, companies will secretly raise the price of their products and during the event, give consumers a big discount which they can’t reject. For example, companies raise the price of their products by 20% and give consumers 30% discount. The actual price consumers will pay equals P*1.2*0.7, which is 0.84P. Obviously, consumers will only get 16% actual discount, not what companies promise, 30% discount. However, most of consumers will never pay attention this detail. Companies earn both reputations and sales through this method.

There is another interesting example in China. Some stores are claiming CLOSING SALE all year. Once I passed by a store, the store was announcing by a big speaker “Closing in one month, everything must be gone. Great sales!” Two month later, I passed by this store by accident again, the store was still announcing there “Closing in one month, everything must be gone. Great sales!” I was suddenly lost, how could you play consumers like this? You totally lost your credits. You were cheating.

Packaging is a very important marketing strategy to glamorize company’s product in order to attract the consumer’s attention. Sometimes a wonderful packaging idea could save a company’s life. For me, I will judge a product by its packaging before buying and choose the product with an attractive packaging when products that are available have a same value to me.

This is a packaging design from German firm Kempertrautmann, when Converse wanted to launch some new laces for its classic All Star trainers. The designers said these fun bags made the product even more desirable. They are not only eye-catching but they are also environmentally friendly as they are made from recyclable material. After Converse used this packaging,  its sales increased by 15% during the campaign.

I will show you more wonderful packagings below.

Has your sandwich ever been stolen during school? If the answer is yes, then this innovative sandwich bag could be the answer to your problems. The plastic bag with ugly spots made the sandwich look as if it has gone mouldy. If you use this bag, no one would want to steal it.

To be honest, this is one of my favourite packaging designs. The firm Weird Clothing package their pants like pieces of meat in a supermarket. I know my taste is kind of werid, but this packaging idea is so brilliant.

During the team assignment 2, our team found EA has three consumer segments in North America market. They are frequent male gamers aged 18 – 40, casual gamers 12 and under with parents in generation X and casual female gamers over age 18. I was responsible for frequent male gamers aged 18 – 40. Here are some thoughts according to my research.

Frequent male gamers aged 18 – 40 are the mainstays of North America’s video game market with a significant expansion in recent years. The average male gamer grew up playing video games throughout his childhood and is likely to be educated 6 and earn about $35,000-$75,000 per year. A typical individual in this segment has been gaming for approximately 16 years, and is likely to be in his mid-30’s. According to the Entertainment Software Association, 42% of game players in North America believe that computer and video games give them the most value for their money, compared to watching movies, listening to music or renting DVD’s. This segment have also been observed to have increased  hand-eye coordination and visuo-motor skills, according to International Weekly Journal of Science. Frequent gamers are able to better resist distractions, are sensitive to information in their peripheral vision, and are able to count briefly presented objects, than non-players. This segment enjoys playing  games in social settings with friends, with 62% of gamers playing online or multi-player. According to Clay Routledge, Ph.D., gamers who played a social games such as Farmville, compared to those who played a neutral game such as Room Escape, were more likely to engage in friendly behaviors, such as keeping the door open for people behind them at the entrance. Frequent gaming however, according to Journal of Interactive Advertising, cause some gamers to become more impulsive than their non-gaming counterparts.

According to the recent research, tobacco kills more then 5 million people every year which is much much more then HIV/Aids, tuberculosis, malaria combined. By 2030 tobacco is going to kill 8 million people a year. Ironically, smoking is the most preventable cause of death.

As we can see from all of the cigarette packs, there is a short sentence “Smoking is harmful to health” or “Smoking kills” along with an ugly picture which is the consequence of having habits of smoking. It seems to be a positive action and contains ethical content.

Everyone knows that smoking is harmful, surely so do the cigarette company. However, they didn’t close their bussiness or even reduce the prodution. They just added a sentence and a picture and continued to produce. I’m not familiar with west country’s commercial law, but I know, in china, if cigarette packs don’t clearly indicate that smoking is harmful, they can’t be sold. So, west countries may share the same situation.

From my point of view, the indicating of the harm of smoking from cigarette company does not due to their conscience, they have to do this in order to make their business and prevent the possibility of a lawsuit. Furthermore, they are not afraid that their sales volume will be affected. They know people need their products and ignore the dark-side of smoking.

Hopefully, in the coming future, cigarette company will give their effort to help the sick people caused by their cigarettes.