Steven (C.H.) Chiang's UBC Blog

Well first off, I’ve learned multiple things in the context of group coherence for sure. The presentations and case studies were challenging on multiple levels: time management, standards, organization. Every new assignment newly challenged our intellect anew. More importantly, Comm 101 was the first class in which teacher and student interaction was highly encouraged, where discussion and participation was encouraged beyond all else. This one singular aspect made Comm 101 stand out among all the other courses in first year, and will allow us to apply such a wide variety of skills not only towards a goal of a Bcom, but in the far future as well.  This adds multiple levels of depth to an otherwise surface idea. Finally, I’d like to throw in my opinion on the Google/Groupon deal. I believe that as Groupon’s partner’s are much more limited compared to Google’s, Google shouldn’t worry to much, and if the decision still results in acquisitions, Groupon isn’t worth that much money! Groupon could be a service Google hosts as Google doesn’t have its own similar service; maybe to defend itself from Yahoo or Bing, but not for the sole purpose of acquiring a possible competitor.

Don’t get me wrong, we’ve definitely learned something in class that Paul has rectified in our minds concerning the subject of marketing. He and Jeff have taught us a lot…honest. But for some reason, I’ve realized…how come we’re talking more about Accounting/Finance more than Marketing? We had a little accounting activities in class, then why not marketing? I don’t know, design a ad for a company or something? That’s why I’m writing now, about marketing. Then the thought, what to write about when talking about marketing? Brand Recognition? Of course! Two companies jump out at me when I think of brand recognition. One is Apple (yes I’m using a Mac system right now), and WWF(WORLD WILDLIFE FUND, please, not robust yelling men in tights ugh). These two companies jump out at me, Apple because of its mad success – WWF for its social entrepreneurship that I should have brought up in class :). They both have amazing marketing strategies and have placed themselves on the top step of the product ladder in more than one mind. In addition they are working very sustainably, which is a very effective advantage over competitors. Take a look!

When we did the carbon footprint exercise in class, mine was relatively low, and with just reasons. However, I thought to the other things that may increase a person’s environmental footprint that were not stated on  the exercise. I mean think about it. If you leave your lights (or computers) on for more than half of day each day, that’s A WHOLE LOT of emissions (if you don’t live in beautiful British Columbia :). Despite the fact that B.C. has the majority of its electricity supplied through hydro power, I decided to see if company brands in and around my home were trying to limit their carbon footprint. To my surprise, I discovered that Sony is currently still producing products that house harmful chemicals like PVCs, but that they have set a goal to eliminate this for the year 2015. On the other hand, as I personally use a Macbook Pro, I discovered on the Apple side that Apple is currently already selling products with no harmful substances and is still pushing the limits to decrease its carbon footprint, going as far as to save minute increments of electricity between keystrokes. Quite a smart and justified marketing advantage i think.

http://www.apple.com/ca/environment/

During Class 9, we were told as a class by Paul and Jeff about Disney creating a new site to display pictures for photos that showed…well…customer satisfaction. Despite the fact that yes, most people may say that “ohh it’ll boost demand by so much!”, I believe contrary. FIRSTLY there’s the HUGE question. Why the heck would they post there pictures there in the first place?! There are a ridiculous amount of other cyber locations (Flickr, Photobucket, etc) on the internet right now that the motivation to go and most likely create a user id and log in for posting pictures just once or twice as a opportunity cost that is WAY too high. Secondly, most people post pictures on the internet so that family members and friends can take a look. If people post their pictures online, anyone that logs on can look at the pictures! would you like people looking at YOUR pictures? Finally, although Disney hasn’t disclosed this as of yet, but there’s also the possible issue that reflects Facebook. If you upload your photo to Facebook then its there property. This means that they have the jurisdiction to use it as they wish.

http://www.takepart.com/news/2009/02/16/facebook-changes-terms-of-services-owns-your-photos-forever-even-if-you-cancel-your-account

Every famous company didn’t start out famous. Burton Snowboards is now hailed as one of the biggest and baddest companies on the snowboarding frontier these days (think Apple). Why? Because they have the leading edge of innovation. They create the newest products with the newest technology. And just to prove I wasn’t bolding the prior sentence just to seem like I was on topic, I’ll prove it. I’m going to begin by believing that you know what a snowboard does, and looks like. There are many types of snowboards, and three major categories: camber (your old school board that’s concaves towards the ground…I know kinda weird), zero camber (flat on the ground, new technology…interestingly not old school), and rocker(like…well…a rocker!). Among all of the snowboard producers out there (GNU, Lib Tech, K2), Burton has gone above and beyond to develop affordable, yet carefully engineered designs that go in the three categories. This includes the Burton Fish (pow board), Burton Custom Flying V (V-rocker), and the Burton TWC (The Shaun White Collection…the guys who won the half-pipe in the Olympics). Even Dell vouches for their creativity(fashion icon) and expertise(use of 3-D CAD software) and development of materials!

http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/casestudies/256_burton_15.pdf

The first thing that came to my mind when Paul mentioned the iPod as a being the market leader and the top tier in the mental ladder, was the Kleenex. Over the years, I’ve heard countless times from others to pass them a “kleenex”. We use this association so much that we don’t really realize that is actually a brand. No one has really realized this situation, and I must agree with Paul. In addition, I must take it even a step further to say how important brand recognition is. It’s the reason why we might buy Hilroy paper instead of Staples brand. It’s also the reason why people don’t care about where they purchase their oil for their cars. In the oil market there is a lack of brand recognition but everyone I the industry uses the same tactics. If just one of the companies like Shell or Chevron do something out of the box, like being the first to incorporate electric plugs for electric cars at their gas stations, while also informing et public, they would have a huge advantage.

In the past, most companies did not care about the marketing of their product, and with just reasoning. There weren’t a horde of companies continually bombarding you to buy their products in the past. And if you want to go WAY back, companies didn’t really exist; there was Product A throughout, and sold as Product A. Today, There’s either Crest, Colgate, Oral-B, Braun and many other types of Product A, which in this case, is called a toothbrush. Companies now understand that without advertising, their companies will not be recognized by the consumer population, and in turn, lead to low volumes in sales. Advertisements now hold a certain ground in everyday life. If you go to any urban industrial setting, where ever you turn there’s bound to be an advertisement somewhere. Ads have even branched into the realm of cyberspace. This made me think of the limit at which advertisements CAN’T cross. This I realized after watching the movie “The Joneses”, which details a company that employs a group of strangers to pretend as a happy family in a rich neighbourhood. The goal is to show entice the rich people to buy the flashy and new matieral objects.