Marketing Change the Whole World:)

After learning marketing in this summer, I have been totally congested and I think marketing is amazing because it changes the world.

I always think that marketing is taking the view of company because it is a tool to communicate with consumers and help company to generate the profit and achieve the goal. But after learning it, I think it is also taking the view of consumers because what it is doing is all about consumers. As the marketing mix picture always showed, the centre one is consumers and then marketing try to improve the 4Ps to meet all the human-beings needs. Therefore, I think marketing is also the tool for consumers to announce what they actually want.  As the result, marketing actually helps people to change the world efficiently and effectively based on our needs, interest and dream.

In addition, marketing adds the value on the product what actually can help us develop and change the culture. What marketing is trying to do is persuade most of consumers to adapt their idea so we can say the value marketing try to declare is the major culture or the main trend. It seems that it is the  best spokespeople in the world to devilry the much more valuable message to all the people in the world.

All in all, I think the most different thing between marketing and other commerce courses is that it acts as a social role to help people in the world achieve the dream and change the wold.

Marketing is not only about sales and products. It is about you and me.

Re:The Limits of Interest-Based Marketing

After reading “The Limits of Interest-Based Marketing” , I feel the three questions: (1.why are you interest? 2. sure about the interest is right? 3. what is the brand to do? ) the author addressed are quite interesting and I start to think about all the marketing concepts I learned this summer and try to figure out what I can do to overcome this problem if I am a marketer.

First, the author points out that it is a problem that we just use few words to define all of consumers’ interest. In his point of view, different people have different interest in even a same thing such as blog. How to address their interest  and present a product to meet all the kind of interest is a key. In my opinion, it is very hard, what we can do is to try to focus on one kind of majority first and then extend our target customers and attract more and more people.  Grouping different people, and present a main feature of the product  they are interesting in is my solution.

Secondly, the author points out that clearly knowing about your target customers is very important. I think this is what we are learning in this summer class. In my way, I think we have to  figure out where are our customers coming from and then making a market plan to present a value to keep their loyalty and then try to change or add additional value to target the new customers who we think we can satisfy too.

In the end, the author reminds us to keep updating the strategy  to keep consumers. After all, human being is always changeable.

DIY–A Win-Win Strategy

Response to Hao-Yang’s post: Republic Bikes

As same as Hao-Yang, Urban Outfitters is also one of my favorite clothing brand. The custom republic bike she introduced also interest me and remind me to introduce another cute camera: Pentax K-r—-A custom Digital SLR Camera.

As the slogan said: 12 body colour * 10 grip colour= YOUR colour!  ” YOUR OWN” which Pentax emphasize is the core idea that all companies try to address. I agree with Hao-Yang’s point that this kind of custom service provide additional value to customers and meet consumers’ need. It let consumers feel that company think about the product from their sides and help company to build a good relationship with them.

Secondly, I think it also help company to save money and time on marketing research. Currently, all of companies spend a lot time and money to figure out the  competitive differentiation strategy to make them stand out from the whole industry. Custom service can let them easily know what consumers want and provide the products quickly once they get the order.

Thirdly, custom service make companies reduce their distribution line and just build a channel between consumers and them. “It is about you and us”. The shorter distribution line can let companies have a lot of control on their products, also save the money.

Last but not least, custom service is also a sustainable strategy, because company can order the amount of raw material based on consumers’ needs and there will not be waste again. Also companies save the money on storage.

All in all, DIY-custom service is a win-win strategy because it make both sides happy. 🙂

Just For Fun. Here is the link of Pentax K-r’s custom service: http://www.pentax.jp/english/products/k-r/feature.html

Special Deal——A Good Promotion Strategy?

Response to Jacky’s post: ” How determined are you to keep your customer”

Comm 296: How determined are you to keep your customers

I agree with Jacky that the special deal provided by sales people will always  make customers be happy and be willing to buy the product. However, I also think about its negative sides and kind of worried about it.

I understand the reason sales people want to offer a special deal to customer is they desire to sell out the product as soon as possible. After all, new innovation on product is introduced so quickly today, and the old version are always substituted.  Company do not want to under their break-even point that is why they are willing to earn low profit to cover their cost. As customers, they will also consider this problem and when they figure out the real intension that sales people try to do, customer will soon be upset and do not trust sales people again. That will destroy the relationship between customers and company. Also will drug company’s reputation down.

In addition, sometimes people prefer to buy the products with high price, because they think there should be several reasons for high price, maybe high quality or good customer service. They see the value on the product through the price and the decreasing price let them reestimate product’s value and re-make the shopping decision.

Last but not least, the special deal will also affect the other customers’ post-purchase. If customers know someone got one product with lower price than they got, they will probably be frustrated because they think it is dissonance and it will destroy customer loyalty.

Therefore, company should care about the special deal as their promotion strategy. After all, every coin has two sides.

Is IOS 5 Good or Bad?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLJIef-e-7g

On the June 6th, Apple introduced the IOS 5 with over 200 new features. It seems so amazing for consumers and Apple fans because the new mobile system makes things much easier than before. It is such a genius idea and surely it will capture much more potential customers for Apple because consumers would see the value on Apple’s new products.

For Apple’s competitors such as google and Microsoft, surly its renovation will pose a new threat to them. But in my opinion, the biggest victims of this innovation are Apple’s partners rather than competitors.

As known to all, the success of i-product rely to App store. Also we can say that Apple’s success is coming form its most of small partners because hundreds and thousands apps developed by them make i-product beyond just a dull device and give the users ability to extend the i-product experience. In the past, Apple just act as a role of communicator, it create a stage to let its small partners sale their apps on it and then charge the commission fee. But the new innovation introduced by Apple break this relationship.

Apple’s new features cover a lot of popular app’s characters. For example,” imessage “introduced by iphone is almost same as “Whats app” (a social network app). The new camera features include a lot of photograph app’s function. Also”Reminder” takes  a lot of  productivity app’s features. New IOS 5 carried with Apple’s own apps will cause a huge decrease on app developers’ sales, after all, consumer prefer to get more benefit for free. It seems that Apple is not satisfied with sharing profit with their partners any more, it begins to steal market not only form its competitors but also from its corroborators.

In the other hand, although new system  will attract more customers for Apple, it also bring apple a big challenge of losing their app developers who are also used to be kind of Apple’s customers. Developing the new system and covering most features of existing apps will decrease private app developer’s motivation and believes, and further destroy Apple’s mission of encouraging and gathering genius idea together. It seems that Apple will not have  partners any more because they want to be the only one person who is successful in the world. Too much competitors made by Apple itself is a big issue for Apple’s future development.

IOS 5——–A big Challenge!!!

A Little Kitty Makes All the World Crazy……

“OMG!!! Hello Kitty!!!! It’s sooo cute!”

“Kawayii de su ne!!” (In Japanese: cute)

“Hao ke ai” (In chinese: very cute)

……

If you enter into the Hello Kitty Cafe in Taipei, Taiwan, you will hear the word of “cute” in different language again and again until you leave. “Hello Kitty”, a Japanese cartoon character, a white kitty with a pink bow tie on the head makes female of all ages in the world crazy.  No matter what the product is, once it is with “hello kitty”, it always become the most popular products in the same category. Also you can find its image on a variety of consumer products ranging from school supplies to fashion accessories, daily items to rare collection, and traffic tools to food. Hello Kitty is in everywhere. Its crazy fans are in everywhere too.

In my opinion, there is several reasons which make “hello kitty” such successful like this.

  1. The design of the character: the pink or red colour and innocent expression make this white kitty adorable and target female.
  2. Breaking the limit of the cartoon character in the market: Traditionally, the products with cartoon designing are always used to target little kids, however hello kitty break this rule. They try to target the whole female market by a variety range of products and meet different needs of female in different ages. They offer little girls cute dolls,stickers,greeting cards, clothes and others. Also they produce the cute but also a little bit maturing-style products for young girl,such as adorns cars,purses,jewelry and many other high-end consumer. In addition, “Hello Kitty” corporate with their partners and released Hello Kitty branded products, which involve in musical, airline, wine, and theme cafe shop I mentioned before.It seems that Hello Kitty try to build its own kingdom in order to capture the whole world.
  3. Appealing Hello Kitty’s culture: Because Hello Kitty is in everywhere, It seems that it has already build a Hello Kitty’s cultrue-cute and pink. Hello Kitty does not promote their product by ads because each product itself also acts the role of ad. They convey a message that  no matter how old are you, you still can be cute and pink and keep your mind  young as well.

OMG, It’s Hello Kitty!!!!!!!

Girl Friend 2?

“Shelly!! I want to get a “Girl Friend 2!’

-“OMG! one more people”

-“Someone else also want to get it?”

-“Yep!! Nellie, Sandy, Ivy, Yuli and the other girl friends of mine. All of them want to get it”

This dialogue appears a lot recently between my girl friends and me. You may wondering what  exactly “Girl Friend 2” is.Actually, it is a DSL Micro compact mirrorsless camera announced by Panasonic three months ago. Its name is LUMIX DMC-GF2 that’s why people call it Girl Friend 2.

As the popularity of Social net-work such as Facebook and tweeter, the lifestyle about sharing is accepted by most people, especially by girls. Young girls prefer to take photos anytime and anywhere to record every detail in their life and share them with their friends.  GF2’s feature about small size and light weight meet young girls’ this need, since they can carry it conveniently to take photos everyday.

Also, girl has an inherent love of beauty.  They desire to take a great  photo while they also want keep things simple.  The newly  designed user interface that allows for the focus to be set or shutter released by simply touching the touch-screen LCD, make GF2 easy to use.  In addition, because its interchangeable lens system, GF2 is an attractive model for consumers to set up a powerful but easy-use camera.

Thirdly, the design of the camera body is very cute and fashion. It has five colour which includes girls’ favourite colour: white ,pink and red.

As the slogan said,”Seek art in everyday life”,Panasonic’s new production not only meet young girls’ needs but also will appeal more people to embrace this kind of lifestyle as well as the camera itself. GF2 deserves its name–a nice girl friend.

“XinTianDi”-Not Just a Place

In this years, as long as people come to Shanghai, the first place they always consider to drop by is” XinTianDi”. XinTianDi has already overtaken the Bund became the most popular destination in Shanghai, not only for visitors but also for shanghainese themselves.

The chinese meaning of “XinTianDi” is “New Place” because it is a re-development of the old downtown in Shanghai where some reconstituted traditional shikumen (“stone gate”) houses stand in. The initiate purpose of government to operate this city’s landscaping planing project is to protect those historical architecture and to keep the culture of the old shanghai.

However, right now those historical houses is used to server as book stores,cafes, restaurants, and shopping mall. They attract people from all over the world  everyday coming to look around, take a drink , enjoy a dinner or have a break in the noisy downtown.

“XinTianDi” not only represents the culture of Shanghai, but also represents the lifestyle of Shanghainese. It has already created its own brand.

In Shanghainese’ mind, XinTianDi is another word for “Fashion”. A lot of young people in Shanghai prefer to meet friends and shopping there, therefore, XinTianDi is also considered as an ideal store location of those fashion store, such as “Bape” and “IT”. Both of them choose “XinTianDi” as their first store in Shanghai. Such a great successful business opportunity brought by this urban renewal is never expected by the government.

Furthermore, the nightlife on weekdays as well as on weekends in “XinTianDi” is very romantic. It seems that the old Eastern Paris reappears.

“XinTianDi” is not only a place, It has become the remarkable brand of Shanghai which represents the culture, lifestyle and fashion.

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