Month: November 2013

In this course, the last assignment was to make a video regarding the marketing strategies and recommendations for the assigned company. It had to summarize the analysis and effectiveness of the company’s current marketing strategy. For our group, we had assessed MEC, previously known as Mountain Equipment Co-Operation.

The assignment was very interesting to work on, as it had challenged the group in teamwork, critical thinking and creativity. I felt as though the most difficult part was to communicate the information we had found in an engaging manner without leaving out any important details. This was especially apparent when completing the last part of the assignment, the peer reviewing. Most of the videos either had a strong analysis and reconsiderations and a less-than-engaging video, or a highly engaging video, but lacking depth and solid recommendations. If I had a chance to work on the assignment again, I would have put more effort into making the 5 minutes as engaging as possible.

The two most enjoyable courses I had taken this term at UBC were, Introduction to Marketing and Cultural Psychology. Interestingly enough, both have much in common in their content and context. The two topics are both ever so dynamic and applicable to everyday surroundings, it has given me much insight into what the future has to offer.

One of the main topics that I had found interesting was the difference in how Americans differ from the rest of the world’s holistic thinking. They are they only nation to perceive the world from a viewpoint with the subject as the focal point, and the environment as the background. This can be seen from politics, human interactions, art history, as well as practices of medicine.

Now how does this apply to marketing? As an increasingly multicultural world, marketers must be exceptionally sensitive to cultural trends, to find out exactly how people do things and why they do things to create the biggest impact on the consumer. By identifying the cultural trends, products and services can interact and communicate to consumers in the most powerful context. Predicting the future is stepping in to the unknown, but by inspecting patterns of behaviours, we can find the best approaches.

Coined the term “melting pot”, there is an  increasing ethnic and religious diversity found in North America. Communities are less likely to force assimilation of immigrating cultures, rather, to encourage traditions and ideals of the two different cultures. This also increases a different population with different points of view, becoming increasingly open-minded and creative. As an immigrant to Canada, I identify with both Canadian and Taiwanese culture – this type of East and West thinking is quite new, and the best companies would be able to pinpoint exactly how we behave and cater to our emotions and psychological needs. In a blog post by Connie Zhu, she explains her attitudes towards being an Asian American.