Month: October 2013

This is more personal blog – I loved learning about more about corporate social responsibility because working with non-profit organizations during high school was a major part of my choice to come to Sauder.

I went on a humanitarian trip to the Dominican Republic where we worked with two non-profit organizations (it should be mentioned that these were religious organizations, but I want to focus on the effectiveness of their operations strategy). One was a couple doing grassroots, hands on work with people in government housing. The second organization had a core team of 8-10 people and were able to to connect a nation-wide network of churches in order to help empower church leaders.

Both organizations were doing important, meaningful work, but I saw what a bigger impact people could have if they used organizational and management skills in a similar way that people run businesses. For example, the bigger organization had to consider a complicated variety of costs (food, transportation, construction materials), human resources (translators, construction labourers, pastors) and making sure the value proposition of their “product” would meet the needs of individual churches, or their “consumers”.

My experiences are a little different from social entrepreneurship, which is for profit, but I have to agree that using entrepreneurial approach to solve social problems can be much more effective in creating positive change in the world.

I was so interested when alumni Tina Lu shared how her Linkedin profile was a huge part of how she found connections and job opportunities. I had just attended a workshop where Julio Viskovich shared about the effective use of social media as part of your personal brand. He referenced a blog post by Gerry Moran on building the perfect Linkedin profile, and it led me to another post about how to measure your personal branding success on Linkedin.

I am usually more of a passive user on sites like Facebook, usually only connecting with people if I’ve met them in real life for security reasons. I found it fascinating how these social selling experts used social media to actively promote themselves and strategically reach out to connect with other people in the business community. Instead of trying to make sure people don’t stalk them using the Internet, they want to be known for their work. They made me look at these social media outlets as tools, and showed me that you can be just as strategic about your digital footprint as you are about your resume. In modern times, your online presence is now considered a vital part of your personal brand. I will definitely be creating a Linkedin profile as soon as possible!

One of the most desirable targets in marketing today are the millenniums, also known as Generation Y (born from around 1980’s to early 2000s). This group is a huge population segment, and if a company succeeds in hooking this group they could be very profitable.

One article on Adweek details how difficult reaching this generation can be. Generation Y has relatively low disposable income, so they cannot be considered “volume drivers” but need to be seen as a long-term growth proposition. They don’t mind being marketed to, or being loyal to a brand, but they are highly aware of how they want to use their money – for example, they don’t want to pay for intermediaries or ads when they pay for music, they want to pay the artist. With this group’s rampant individualism, unique talent and passion matters (reaching out through social media) instead of consumers just interacting with distant giant corporations. Comedy is considered an excellent way to draw in millenniums, I think because it makes the corporation seem more authentic and relatable.

I found this article so interesting because these are the people trying to figure out how to market to me. And it’s true – I am a bit wary about giant corporations trying to get me to do surveys, but when I meet a passionate entrepreneur I’m much more willing to support them. I admire individual Youtube artists who pursue their passion outside of a label. I want corporations to believe in the product they are offering, not just trying to rip me off and take my money. And I don’t disagree that some of the most successful marketers to my generation will be from my generation.

ModCloth is a online vintage fashion retailer that uses feedback from customers to improve their supply chain.

In class, we looked at how Dell’s virtually integrated supply chain was a key component to their success. Their close relationships with manufacturers made just-in-time production possible, and the constant feedback from customers made it able to adapt to customer needs quickly.

How can other industries learn from this? In this fashion industry, demand can often be difficult to predict because with so many substitutes, sales depend heavily on consumer tastes (which are often swayed by marketing). Instead of a product oriented approach where brands will make products and spend most of their time trying to sell them, the industry seems to be moving towards a market oriented approach where customer feedback shapes production decisions to enhance customer value. This allows companies to cut down costs on unwanted inventory and efficiently capitalize on consumer wants by customizing. This is especially important with the development of online shopping, where there are many more substitutes and customer value is vital to consumer decision making.

This is a suitable direction for the fashion industry especially because fashion is by nature interactive, with clothes being part of how we express ourselves and relate to one another. This aspect of the industry makes it even easier to gather feedback with the use of social media and networking.