Coca-Cola is one of my favorite brands. After reading an external blog written by Brendan Miller (http://blog.armoryideas.com/2011/04/12/coca-cola-friendship-machine/), I am further impressed by Coca-Cola’s unconventional marketing efforts to create a strong relationship with its customers.

One of its recent marketing campaigns is about building a Coca-Cola Friendship Machine during the Friendship Day in Latin America. The vending machine is 3.5 meters tall, so friends need to cooperate with each other in order to climb up the machine and insert coins into the machine. The campaign successfully attracts a lot of passers-by who enjoy the fun of playing with their friends as well as take the advantage of the special 2 for 1 offer (one for themselves and one for their friends). 800 Cokes are sold in 9 hours on that day. That’s 1075% more sales than with a regular vending machine.

In my opinion, Coca-Cola uses reminder advertising as its promotional tool. Coke is a mature product. By using reminder advertising, it helps to keep the brand in the customers’ mind, and also remind people where to buy the product. Developing a friendship vending machine to help celebrate the Friendship Day is an amazing promotional tactic that narrows the obstacle between the product and the public. Customers may probably think about the product more often when they are interacting with their friends.

It was happy to see Groupon finally went public on Friday after a month of delay. The initial public offering, which was priced at $20 the night before, soared 40 percent at the opening bell to hit $28. It shows a good sign for Groupon and other Internet companies waiting to go public. However, in Terry Lee’s Blog (https://blogs.ubc.ca/terrylee/2011/11/07/groupon-a-bubble/), the author commented that “the rise of the stock was mostly due to hype, and is a growing bubble, that is soon to pop” because of Groupon’s “lack of profit” in the long run and “risk of competitors”.  I do not agree with Terry’s points of view.

Groupon went public before LivingSocial or Facebook. From a marketing point of view, I think that being a pioneer to go public helps Groupon to raise its brand image and brand awareness among the public. It should not be a surprise to find consumer-facing websites attract more potential customers after going public. For example, LinkedIn’s growth accelerated after entering the public market this year.  Therefore, going public will be a major marketing boost for Groupon.

The competition within the e-commerce industry is really intense. Groupon faces competitions from its similar online buying companies, like LivingSocial. Also, as mentioned in Terry’s blog, Google appears as a threatening competitor to Groupon. Although, with a huge number of competitors, Groupon’s position as a market leader in the industry with 50% of total market shares makes it difficult to be defeated. Going public before its major rivals doing so further helps Groupon to horn its strong brand position and competitive advantage.  The main purpose for a business to use Groupon is as a marketing tool. Due to a recent slow down of economy, I believe that more and more small businesses with limited budget will choose Groupon as a platform to attract customers, rather than afford expensive marketing strategies offered by Google.

In Jason Xu’s blog (https://blogs.ubc.ca/junnanxu/2011/09/18/lessons-for-twitter/), he talked about the Chinese version of Twitter, Sina.com, as the marketing intermediary for many celebrities and major brands in China.

Sina.com boomed in the year of 2010, with visitors doubled and time spent on it tripled. As a young generation of China, I am also a user of Sina.com and a follower of many celebrities. In my opinion, Sina.com has successfully become the most popular social media platform with more than 140 million bloggers. It has a big influence on China’s young generation, since about 80 percent of those bloggers are young people, under 30 years old. The marketing strategy used by Sina.com is about opening verified accounts for celebrities and major brands as mentioned in Jason’s blog. Most Chinese celebrities use Sina.com to enhance their attractiveness through posting their daily living photos and sharing their status with their fans. On the other hand, Sina.com gains ad revenues through enhanced marketing for brands and products using promotions and videos. For example, the most popular blogger is a movie star, who has more than 9.5 million followers, and has created profits of about $1.7 million for Sina.com.

However, the power and the impact of Sina.com may make itself get into trouble. A few months ago, an ethical issue of marketing regarding Sina.com rose. A 20 years old girl called Guo Meimei showed off her expensive bags, clothes and cars on her Sina.com. And she was verified by Sina.com to be the general manager of Red Cross Society of China. She didn’t realize that she aroused national questioning against the credibility of Red Cross. The controversy was so heated that the Red Cross had to open a press conference to clarify it, and the investigation was going on. Although, so far, we know that Guo Meimei herself made up the title, the issue generally makes public lose trust in government as well as government-backed institutions.

“Fresh Air’’ is the new campaign tool of Hong Kong’s Clean Air Network, a nongovernmental group that promotes awareness of the quality of air in highly polluted Hong Kong. The city’s air is three times more polluted than New York’s and more than twice as bad as London’s.

Instead of sticking with serious, public service-announcement-style of campaigns, Clean Air Network tried to make the campaign in an innovative way by using humor and having a celebrity. I find it is a creative and powerful marketing strategy in addressing the issue of environmental conservation among younger people in Hong Kong.

Firstly, Clean Air Network invited the Hong Kong actor, Daniel Wu, who is especially popular with younger Hong Kongers, to act in its minute-and-a-half spoof of a 1980s-style infomercial. The influence of Daniel Wu among younger generations might help to raise young people’s awareness of protecting the environment effectively.

Secondly, the advertisement itself is innovative and ironical. It is a video about selling ‘Fresh Air’ — the ‘‘revolutionary new product’’ that lets you experience breathing ‘‘like the rest of the world does.’’ It comes in a baby-blue canister complete with breathing mask, and in a variety of ‘‘flavors,’’ including vanilla and beach. It can be yours for only 2 dollars and you can even get six for the price of one. The interesting video seeks to educate viewers by taking a tongue-in-cheek approach to the dangers of air pollution. Watching the ad might evoke a chuckle or two, but the overall message is deep: “If we do nothing about Hong Kong’s air pollution today, we can look forward to unbreathable air tomorrow.”

The campaign video had more than 143,000 views on YouTube within only six days. And it was widely shared by publics on Facebook. This proves the success of Clean Air Network’s marketing program in attracting public’s attention to build strong customer relationships in order to capture value from customers in return.

Comm 299(Career Fundamentals) is a great course I have taken at Sauder. It teaches me new skills, like how to write a competitive and professionally formatted, error-free cover letter and resume as well as how to behave in a persuasive interview. With all the skills I learnt in 299, I think that I will be a competitive candidate in job applications, for example, summer internships, part-time employment, volunteer opportunities and work after graduation.

One thing I have learned about myself in 299 is my personal strengths. After completing the Strength Quest, I understood myself better. My top 5 strengths are achiever, competition, restorative, arranger and consistency. So it made me realize that I am a person who has a great deal of stamina and work hard, is good at figuring out what is wrong and resolving it, is good at organizing, and is keenly aware of the need to treat people the same. With a good understanding of my strengths and weaknesses, I am able to further progress through working on my strengths and overcoming my weaknesses, so that I can be an outstanding candidate in most job selection processes.    

One of the most influential people in my life is my first Economics tutor in my high school.

My female Economics tutor, Mrs. Chang, has made a very positive impression on me. She has always made reference to contemporary events that has helped me clarify the relationships between Economics concepts and current affairs. Economics lessons in the past two years have fascinated me. I have been motivated highly enough to seek to understand the key principles used in daily market activities – how companies operate to gain the greatest profits and why exchange rates fluctuates frequently, etc. I have grown to see Economics as a practical subject, most applicable to my everyday life. The greatest lesson I learned from Mrs. Chang is being an avid reader of newspapers and magazines, such as Fortune and The Economist, which give me a better understanding of Economics and its related subjects.

That is the great reason why I decided to further discover the wonders of the business field at university.

Although bribes and corruption is a kind of universal circle of life: ‘powerful politicians bully businessman and wealthy businessmen in turn bribe and influence politicians’, Samsung’s corruption scandal in 2007 still stunned South Koreans.

The three major allegations of criminal behavior of Samsung are ‘the creation of a slush fund; bribing prosecutors and government officials; and an effort by the chairman, Lee Kun Hee, to illegally help his son take over control of Samsung.’ From 1997 to 2004, Samsung bribed scores of senior politicians, journalists and court officials to win the deal for the business. According to a former lawyer of Samsung, the cash bribes were handed over in packages, like CDs or monthly magazines, or in suitcases. Samsung gave each of senior prosecutors between 5 million and 20 million three times a year. Also, Lee and his aides had raised huge sums of secret funds, using bank accounts illegally opened under the names of more than 1,000 Samsung executives.

The scandal reflects a lack of business ethics in the country’s largest cooperation, since conducting business in accordance with the applicable laws of the country is the minimal of business ethics.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/06/business/worldbusiness/06iht-samsung.1.8210181.html

High unemployment rate, strong Canadian dollars, weak global demand for Canadian products as well as fading government stimulus spending are several key challenges faced by Canada now. Among all the problems, joblessness is most largely concerned by the public. Job growth in Canada as a whole remains weak. While ‘the jobless rate dropped to 7.6 per cent from 7.9 per cent in November’, it is resulted more from fewer young people looking for work than from increasing jobs in the labour market. However, the good news for western people is that jobless rates are much lower (below the national average) in resource-rich West, compared to that in manufacturing-based East. The total amount of employments generated in manufacturing sectors declined to the lowest point. On the other hand, natural resources now are the fastest-growing source of employment. Statistics showed that ‘Ontario and Quebec have together lost more than 75,000 factory positions in the past year’. Moreover, the job creation in East is largely dependent on part time works. ‘Part-time work has grown 4 per cent from last year’. And ‘nearly 40 per cent of job growth since last November has been in part-time positions’, according to the Conference Board of Canada. From my analysis, the high unemployment rate in Canada is mainly lead by its high exchange rate. Exporting companies receive fewer revenues when their products are more expensive than the outputs of foreigners. To maintain the companies’ high profit, they will keep the labour cost low by hiring fewer workers. Thus, it explains why job creation is disappearing in the whole country, especially in the manufacturing sectors.

Link: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/jobless-figures-underline-east-west-divide/article1823392/comments/

“They don’t even want to leave the house, how do you expect them to be solar engineers?” That’s the question that most people will ask when they first hear the phrase “solar-engineering grandmothers”. Bunker Roy proved us that it is possible.

He established the Barefoot College in 1972. The Barefoot College is the only college in India for the poor: built by the poor and only for the poor. It provides basic services and solutions to problems in rural communities, like female education, health and sanitation, rural unemployment, income generation, as well as electricity and power. Starting from 1990, Barefoot College has trained thousands of semi-literate and illiterate rural women – many of them grandmothers – to become professionals in solar engineering. When they go back home, these women are able to install, maintain and repair solar panels and batteries, and change life in their remote villages forever. Bunker Roy found that illiterate grandmothers are the best investments for eduacating solar engineers, as they are committed to their village, enthusiastic to learn, and have no desire tp leave their village. As a social entrepreneur, Bunker Roy successfully innovates a solution: training grandmothers in remote villages as solar enginners, to effectivly solve some basic social problems ( such as gender inequality, shortage of electricity) in many poor countries.  The success stories of India’s Barefoot Colleg has shown us that social entreprenuership is able to make a difference for many.

For more information, please go to http://www.wipo.int/wipo_magazine/en/2009/03/article_0002.html, http://www.barefootcollege.org/

In my opinion, Trek 2000 International is a good example of entrepreneurial company due to a wide range of its innovation, and its founder, Henn Tan is one of the most successful entrepreneurs, who pioneer change. 

Trek 2000 International is a Singapore-based company that invented Thumb Drive, a USB (Universal Serial Bus) portable data storage device in year 2000. The company’s revolutionary innovation popularised the use of the USB flash drive which overtook the floppy disk as the most common portable data storage device for computers today.

The predecessor of Trek 2000 is a small family-owned electronic parts trading business. Tan bought the small company, restructured it and changed its business focus to providing technology-driven engineering solutions to businesses. On the way to success, Tan had to overcome many obstacles, which include securing financing from banks and the government, recruiting good staff, and convincing big companies to engage their services. With Trek’s substantial innovation beyond what a small business might exhibit, the world’s first “Thumb Drive” was produced. The plug-and-play memory drive required no cable or adapters, and could store more data than a floppy disk. It helps to create more conveniences for people in the 21^st century, as well as gives Trek the competitive advantage that results in wealth creation. Today, Trek 2000 has built up a portfolio of 161 patents, and has offices in the United States, Malaysia, Thailand, India, Hong Kong, Netherlands, China, Philippines, Vietnam and Japan. They were named as one of the “Best Small Companies in the World” by Forbes in 2000 and 2002.

For more information about the company and its chairman, please go to http://infopedia.nl.sg/articles/SIP_1071_2010-03-23.html