Promotion on a Personal Level

We have defined promotion as getting the right message to the right audience through the right media. What happens then, when you have constructed the perfect message, identified your target market, and chosen your medium? At many times, we follow this  formula for promotion, believing that it will naturally bring in all the consumers we want. However, consumers today demand more attention, more time, and more interaction from companies. As Jim Estill points out in his article, The Power of the Personal, the biggest challenge facing marketers today is to get their prospects to actually pay attention and read what they send them. Companies are becoming more and more aware that increased social interaction with their consumers is necessary to successfully attract attention and induce action among their consumers. This is because interactive marketing is personal and leaves a distinct impression in the consumers’ minds. This distinctive impression will help the company combat competition in the consumers’ minds and help the company build valuable, long-term relationships with its consumers. So how does a company do this? Companies can research and establish their unique consumer touch points and create consumer-generated messages based on consumer opinions. By gathering popular opinions on social sites, businesses are tapping consumers for ideas. Finding ways to connect with consumers personally is especially important because it’s that additional layer of promotion that creates value for the consumer. Today, consumers find value in a company who understands and caters to the specific needs that they may have.

McCain Foods Expands into India

After reading about McCain’s expansion into India from Stephanie Poon’s Blog,  I would like to comment on McCain Foods’s product strategy and how it has lead to a brilliant expansion into the Indian market. McCain Foods is the world’s largest producer of French Fries and other oven-ready frozen food products. Its product lines are very consistent, mainly focusing on frozen food products that serve as convenient and easy-to-make meals. McCain Foods has reached a maturity stage in its product life cycle and it is now modifying the market for its frozen foods through finding new users in a new and seemingly strange market: India. In pursuing market development as its product growth strategy, McCain Foods has pinned down the core customer value for the Indian market: convenience. McCain’s frozen foods delivers convenience to the growing work population in India and their fast-paced life style by offering a frozen food product that is easy to make and fun to eat. Although McCain Foods India’s frozen food products have not changed greatly from the original, it has adjusted its frozen foods to local tastes in India to ensure a more welcoming adoption of its products. I believe that McCain’s efforts in India will go far and that this may be their first step in its market development into the Asian market.

 

Market Segmentation and Targeting : McCafé

Among the unbelievably long line-ups at McDonald’s and other local food shops, I found a place with no line-ups in Guangzhou, China: McCafé. I was delighted that there was an absence of line-ups at McCafé but I also found the coffee-based drinks mediocre and the environment of McCafé too modest. Perhaps I have adapted to Starbucks and Blenz Coffee all too well and anything different seemed not up to standard.  I agree with Heena that  McDonald’s needs to renovate its brand image and I have focused on McCafé, the coffee-house-style food and drink chain owned by McDonald’s:

In terms of geographic segmentation, McCafé has chosen to target urban cities in well-established countries such as Australia, the US, Japan, China, Spain, etc. Demographically, McCafé considers young adults with relatively high disposable income and adults in the working population. These consumers look for  a laid-back environment with comfortable surroundings, exquisite furnishings, and an artistic ambiance in a coffee house. Also, consumers have a need for coffee especially in the morning, and sometimes during lunch and dinner to accompany their meals. In locations near universities, there is a need for a 24 hours coffee house with wi-fi where students can do late night studying or work on projects on their laptops.

Coffee house is a lucrative business considering the current and future market size of coffee-drinkers and the consumer trend towards espresso coffee. In order to target its consumers, McCafés are situated within or adjacent to existing full-service traditional McDonald’s restaurants. I think that this is both an advantage and a weakness. If McCafé’s objective is to create profit as a side business, it has done well in placing its chains besides McDonald’s, which generate a huge amount of traffic. However, if McCafé’s objective is to establish itself as a well-known, top-of-the-mind coffee-house-style  brand, it needs to break apart from the fast food brand image and improve on its product line and store environment. I believe that it is a brilliant strategy for McCafé to renovate its Canadian locations because an improved appearance and storefront layout will help McCafé become a more urban and stylish coffee house brand in consumers’ minds.

Taking a Proactive Stance: Chrysler 200 ‘Born of Fire’

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The Chrysler 200 ‘Born of Fire’ Commercial pushed through and distinguished itself from the plethora of other auto commercials  in the competitive auto sales industry, winning the Emmy award for Best Commercial this year. This commercial featuring rap star Eminem was aired during the Super Bowl 2011 and has thus far accumulated over 12 million views on Youtube. The marketing behind the commercial stands unique and brilliant as it abandons the traditional pitch for a new car which often boasts the car’s new features. Instead, Chrysler focuses on building up and re-positioning its brand by projecting images of Detroit and how the city has “been to hell and back”. Chrysler has taken a proactive stance toward the marketing environment in reversing the publics’ impression of the economic downturn of Detroit’s motor industry.

Olivier Francois, Chief Marketing Officer at Chrysler Group, said in a statement: ” ‘Born of Fire’ was more than a commercial about the Chrysler 200, it was our anthem and signified the return of the Chrysler brand and our company.” Chrysler’s ‘Born of Fire’ Wins Emmy for Best Commercial

It is no surprise that the creator of the Chrysler 200 ‘Born of Fire’ commercial is Wieden+Kennedy, who is also the advertising agency that produced the “Old Spice” commercials. This Chrysler 200 commercial set Chrysler apart as the proud Detroit-based American luxury brand seeking to win back its market share in the luxury car market. The publics’ attitude towards the Chrysler brand and remembrance of the company’s bankruptcy in 2009  is being reshaped by this commercial: the projected images of the new shiny Chrysler 200 together with Eminem’s powerful pitch in the Chrysler 200 ‘Born of Fire’ commercial reinforces Chrysler as a strong national brand that has stood back on its feet despite the recent economic downturns.

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What I learned in Comm 299

Starting off the course in term 1 with presentations and public speaking prepared me well for communicating in public. I learned how to research, project my voice, and present  my points in a concise manner. However, I think that the second part of the course was far more important. In term 2, my biggest reward coming out of the course was a new resume and cover letter. Looking at my resume now, I have more confidence in approaching employers and professionals. Starting from differentiating between result and transferable verbs, I have learned how to organize and format the content on my resume to present myself more professionally. What I most enjoy about Comm 299 is the lesson on building connections or networking. I have come to realize the importance of Information Interviews and I have recently conducted one. The results were fruitful and I now feel confident in approaching employers and companies because of Comm 299!

My Greatest Lesson Learned From Someone

My greatest lesson learned is from Andrew Carnegie and his essay: “The Gospel of Wealth”. In the essay, Carnegie stresses that wealth should not be passed on to the next generation and that we are to work for wealth ourselves. Individualism, property, and competition are natural laws that set up society as an environment that allows individuals to strive and gain wealth.  I am especially motivated by Carnegie’s view of life. He believed that life should be divided into 3 stages: pursuing an education, making money, and bettering society.  We pursue our education in hopes of landing a career through which we can achieve financial freedom and a sense of accomplishment. However, we often lose sight of the last stage: bettering society, as we set our goals in life. Without the purpose of bettering society, the continuance of accumulating wealth is meaningless. Money is good, but it is good because it can help us achieve things in this world.

Thus Andrew Carnegie’s quotation: “The man who dies rich dies disgraced”. Carnegie encourages us to redistribute our wealth back into society at the end of our lives. He himself donated all his wealth to universities and libraries in North America at the end of his life because he wanted to encourage the worthy to improve themselves. The Carnegie Community Centre and Carnegie library here in Vancouver are patrons of his donations.

Here’s what I learned from Andrew Carnegie’s : work hard, live humbly, and learn to serve the society.

Back to Ethics: Foxconn Scandal

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Foxconn International Holdings Ltd is a subsidiary of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd, a Taiwanese company that is the world’s largest maker of electronic components. It supplies famous brands such as Apple, Hewlett-Packard, and Microsoft. 300,000 to 450,000 workers are employed at the Longhua Science & Technology Park, a cramped and walled campus referred to as “Foxconn City” in Shenzhen, China. Workers live, work and eat inside the complex and from January to November 2010, 16 Foxconn workers have committed suicide.

Some of the key problems in the Foxconn factories are the lack of freedom and interaction between the employees, the military-style enforcement, and an excessive amount of security around the factory.The low salaries and harsh punishments for faults committed by workers have greatly reduced employee motivation and ultimately, their motivation for life. The suicides at Foxconn were essentially caused by Foxconn’s weak and dysfunctional organizational culture and company structure. I believe that in order to restore stability and to prevent further suicides within the company, Foxconn needs to rebuild its organizational culture and to remodel its leadership style to be more employee-oriented. To rebuild trust, Foxconn’s leaders should formally apologize for the company’s unethical decisions in the past and promise positive organizational change for the future.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxconn

http://www.cultofmac.com/report-another-foxconn-death-this-time-on-ipod-line/54098

http://www.logichp.com/tag/foxconn/

Local Social Entrepreneurship Here In Vancouver: 3HCraftworks

I have been volunteering at 3H Craftworks Society on 4th Ave.  and  only recently have I come to realize that it is a social entrepreneurship firm! Its crafts are created by artisans with disabilities. Craftworks hire adults in Vancouver who are unable find regular employment due to physical challenges or mental illness. As volunteers, we cut out pieces of felts and prepare materials to be  sent off to the employees, who often work on the crafts in the convenience of their homes. The finished crafts will be sent back to the Craftworks store on 4th Ave., where the crafts are displayed and sold. The profit generated by the sales are used to pay the disabled employees and the program manager.

Craftworks is an excellent example of social entrepreneurship because it is not simply driven by the perception of a social need or by its compassion. Rather, Craftworks have a vision of how to achieve improvement through innovative means. It has developed a new model of operations with the social mission to empower the disabled in Vancouver. Personally, I see  Craftworks as a social enterprise that generates social returns far greater than its financial ones.

Employee Testimonial: “The work provides satisfaction knowing that many children have found pleasure in the things I produce” – 65-year-old male employee (stroke victim).

Further Employee Testimonials:

http://www.3hcraftworks.com/site/clients.shtml

Youtube: Born Out of Entrepreneurial Spirit

Vidcon 2010: What Is YouTube’s Future?YouTube Preview Image

Early 2005, three bachelors in their 20’s were hanging out and chatting about a party they’d gone to the night before. They took some video footage at the party and hoped to share it with friends but didn’t know how to get it online. With their simple concept of online video-sharing, Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim founded Youtube with an $11.5 million investment by Sequoia Capital in November 2005. Youtube is a perfect example of economist Joseph Schumpeter’s definition of entrepreneurship: new products, new production methods, new markets, and new forms of organization. Although online videos existed before Youtube, there has never been a huge video-sharing site like Youtube taken to the international stage. Videos on Youtube can be uploaded and watched by anyone at anytime. Thus, Youtube’s market is basically anyone who has access internet. Youtube is also characterized by its innovation, amount and speed of wealth creation. On October 9th, 2006, Google acquired YouTube for a $1.65 billion deal. Currently in the year 2010, the Google-owned  YouTube has collected a revenue of 450 million dollars, as reported by The New York Times. Youtube is THE entrepreneurial company that is earning bountiful profits fast.

http://www.entrepreneur.com/worklife/successstories/ebusinessprofiles/article168764.html

Definition of Entrepreneurship:

http://www.quickmba.com/entre/definition/