In assignment 3, our team evaluated the current marketing mix of Club Penguin and provided recommendations in a video form. Not only we needed to communicate our ideas effectively and accurately, we were also required to communicate the idea through a 7 minute long video. By completing this assignment, I have gained much more respect for the post production of a film. The process was very time consuming and requires attention to detail. More importantly, it was subjected to a time limit which made it more difficult to effectively deliver our message to the audience. I also noticed the importance of having a background music as it sets the pace and mood of the whole video.

In this assignment, I surprised myself by taking the work of editing the group video and finishing it. Like many other people, I did not have any video editing experiences. As a result, I was clueless in the beginning. However as I started exploring the film making software and planning the structure of the video, I gradually gained a better and clearer vision of what our video could look like. Although the process was long and painful, I enjoyed the finished product very much. I learned to take extra work and followed through my commitment to my team.

There are still flaws in our video that I would do differently next time. For stance, I find that part A was very wordy, especially the positioning part. This was due to the time constraint on the video length. We could definitely have better structured our presentation to meet this constraint without compromising the quality of our presentation.

Overall I enjoyed assignment 3. And I appreciated my teammates’ hard work and contribution.

While I was strolling on the Canadian Marketing Association website, I came across this interesting piece of article called “Marketing Six Feet Under“. In the article, the writer points out how the funeral business is initiating new non-traditional marketing tactics such as producing short films and online advertising.

I guess in this rapid changing economy and its growing technology, everyone needs to change and adapt to survive in the business. As the blog article pointed out, the funeral business is not only changing their marketing strategy but also re-positioning themselves in a more positive angle. Instead of the dark, cold and cruel feelings which are what  funerals used to stand for, the new version of funerals is aimed to celebrate the lives of the deceased rather than mourning for them.

While reading the article, I recalled an interesting conversation with one of my friends who recently had a family member pass away. An interesting fact she told me was that this Shanghai cemetery is thinking of implementing bar-codes on the new tombstones which can be scanned by a smart phone and allow the living to view the bibliography of the deceased. As sorry as I was for her loss, I thought the idea was fascinating.

No doubt, the previously matured death industry has brought itself back to the growing stage. After reading this blog post, I think even I am interested in pre-planning my own funeral.