Month: January 2011

Last Thursday night, UBC’s International Business Club held their signature event, World’s Cities Night, at Eh! Restaurant in Downtown Vancouver. The International Business Club (check out their cool new website here!: (http://www.ibclub.ca/) aims to connect the global business world with the entire UBC student body, and World’s Cities Night gave UBC students the excellent opportunity to network with professionals working internationally. As an executive of the IB Club, I was proud to say that the event was a complete success. Other than the fact that I couldn’t leave the refreshments table alone with all the delicious finger food, I was captivated by the speech of one of our keynote speakers of the night, George Moen, the president of Blenz Coffee.

He was a brilliant speaker, and an even more brilliant storyteller. He talked about his past successes and failures, how Blenz Coffee came to be, and how he became the man he is today. But the story that caught my attention was about his upcoming marketing strategy for Blenz Coffee: the Blenz Red Band.

For those who have not yet heard of the Blenz Red Band, this new project provides single Blenz customers with a “personal ad on their coffee cup – a red band sleeve signifying they’re open to meeting potential dates.” (http://communities.canada.com/vancouversun/blogs/techsense/archive/2011/01/20/buy-a-blenz-coffee-get-a-date.aspx)

Thinking about this new project, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs popped into my mind.  This new Blenz Red Band targets all single people and their inner desire to fulfill certain needs:

• Physiological: Perhaps this need is the least important of the 5, but hey, even single people get thirsty or need that extra caffeine to get past the morning!
• Safety: It’s almost always assumed that the coffee sold is safe to drink, but that need is still there.
• Love: This one is the “bingo”! Statistics have shown that “51.5 per cent of people over age 15 were unmarried in 2006, marking the first time married people have been outnumbered in the census”. (http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/09/12/census-families.html#ixzz1Br9nDVS4) The growth of single people only means a growth in the market for Blenz Red Band. People tend to avoid loneliness and enjoy company, acceptance from others, and a sense of belonging. This new project gives singles not just a nice cup of hot coffee, but also a chance to fulfill this need and meet local singles who are also interested in a relationship, friendship, or even just a nice chat on the couches.
• Esteem: Despite a terrible heartbreak or a natural sense of insecurity, this new Blenz Red Band can raise a person’s own self-esteem in very subtle way. It signals to others of their availability and willingness to indulge into a conversation without having to take initiative or say a single word. They can indirectly open themselves up to others, and other singles can approach and develop a relationship with them, just by a simple red band on their Blenz coffee cup.
• Self-actualization: I don’t think the addition of the red band would lead directly to a person’s complete satisfaction with life, but perhaps it can create the opportunity for a single to meet a potential life partner, hence leading to a satisfying life without caring what other people think.

To think that adding a simple red band could satisfy that many needs! I’m definitely looking forward to this February 1st, when this project would be finally launched. I better start eying those regular Blenz customers…

This is a true story.

It happened a few weeks ago, as I was walking through the mall to get to work. As always, my eyes have a tendency to wander around as I walk, and that day was no exception. My eyes stopped at a particular young man, not because he was especially attractive, but because of what he was doing. He appeared to be a customer service representative at that Fido store, dressed in a light blue shirt and ironed dress pants. However, during work hours, he decided to walk out of the store, step in front of a large mirror located beside the bright yellow “Fido” sign, and just stare at himself. I’m pretty sure I was not the only one who noticed, but the man didn’t seem to care. He kept looking at himself in different angles, fixing his shirt, fixing his collar, practicing his smile. He tugged at strands of his hair, messed it up, just to fix it back to what it was 5 minutes ago. It was oddly amusing to watch him. Why did this man put so much attention on his own appearance, even during work hours? Was it that important to stare at himself for 5 minutes in front of the mirror? Did he like his reflection that much?

I’m tempted to say that this is a prime example of extreme narcissism, but perhaps there’s a reason behind this. I thought back to COMM 299, the course where we learned about personal branding. We can think of ourselves as our own individual company, and each person develops his/her own marketing strategy in order to succeed in the business world. So how do we do it? Just like how Apple sells its iPhone 4’s or how Starbucks sells its coffee, we use the same marketing plan:

1. Business mission and objectives: Instead, we develop our main objective as to why we wish to work at a particular company.
2. Situation analysis: We analyze our personal strengths and weaknesses, as well as external opportunities and threats (competition).
3. Identify opportunities: We look at the different career opportunities available and filter through them to select the positions most suitable for ourselves, based on our character and personality.
4. Implement marketing mix (4 P’s): I would rather not view people as products, but perhaps this is the step to focus on our past experiences as well as our overall professional impression and appearance.
5. Evaluate performance using marketing metrics: A time to reflect and improve ourselves by reviewing our successes and failures.

Now back to Mr. Mirror Man. How was he trying to brand himself? Perhaps he was focusing a little too much on the appearance part of Step 4, but there’s definitely more to a product than just packaging. As colourful and “cool” as the packaging may look, if the chips taste horrible, people won’t buy it. However, if the packaging itself isn’t attractive, consumers would not be interested at all in the first place.

Let’s just say, if I were Fido, I wouldn’t pay an employee $15/hour to stare at himself in the mirror. I wonder if Mr. Mirror Man still works at Fido.

How often do YOU look at yourself in the mirror?