Yun Wang's Blog

I was looking at my friend-Jenny’s blog, and saw her recent post “Everyone would be attracted” about a redesigned official webpage for Nando’s Chicken. I was very excited reading this post because I used to love Nando’s so much while I was in New Zealand, and I went there at least twice per month. Now here I am in Canada, I have never been to any of Nando’s restaurant.

In Jenny’s post, she briefly described what the current webpage is like and expressed her thinking towards online web advertizing. Indeed, this is a very eye-catching website and obviously Nando’s has noticed the significant role that social media plays in the marketing strategy. People nowadays spend a lot of time online and this creates great opportunities for companies to develop orimprove their online marketing strategies. It would be great new experiences for customers to feel involved with the products and services, and people sometimes google a company or its product and service first before they actually get into stores. Therefore, an attractive and appealing online performance are greatly needed for a company, in order to expend its customer bases and increase the brand or company exposure.

Nando’s designs its homepage as if it was a kitchen at home, and people are willing to explore more and stay longer on the site because it is so creative and interesting. Nando’s has made a very good impression on customers who have never been to Nando’s before, and the websites has so much to look at and there is a lot information about Nando’s, which helps people to better understand this worldwide restaurant. What is more, Nando’s is not only being innovative about its website, its menus, in-store posters are all very eye-catching, creating a special brand culture/atmosphere.

To conclude，this is a very cool and creative website, check it out now! And if you have the chance, go and try their peri-peri!! http://www.nandoscanada.com/index1.html

image link: http://juicygossips.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/NandosPrintAd.jpg

I was reading my friend Jennifer‘s blog and then one of her blog posts, “1000 Paper Crane for Japan” caught my eyes. Jennifer appreciate the fact that she is safe here at Vancouver and everyone around her is willing to help to fund raise  money for Japan. 1000 Paper Crane for Japan was one of the initiatives at Sauder, and each student donated at least one dollar for every crane they fold, based on the Japanese tradition which is after folding a 1000 paper cranes people can make one wish and that wish will come true.

Then I saw another news “Buy a crane, help Japan“, written by Gail Cole,talking about First Alternative are selling dozens of paper cranes made by their stuff, at the price of $1, $5, $10 and $15 depends on the quality of paper they use to fold the cranes. “Proceeds will go to the International Cooperative Alliance’s Japan Disaster Recovery Fund, to fund the rebuilding of food, housing, power and other types of co-ops in Japan.”

I am so glad to see people across the world are trying to do something to help those victims of the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami. There are posters, flyers about help Japan at various locations. I see many donation boxes at Japanese restaurants as well as in many retail stores. Some of the companies/stores decide to donate some of their daily profits to Japan, and there are auctions going for to raise money for Japan.

Sometimes money or revenue isn’t the top priority of a company, and some of the social issues are worthwhile to a company to pay attention to and offer help if needed. A good company should know how to repay the society, and certain charity involvements would also add value to the brand image. In the case of natural disasters at Japan this month, companies are coming up with ideas/tactics of how to help those victims in Japan either financially or spiritually like, showing their concerns,  while doing something that is beneficial to the company at the same time.

We all pray for Japan!
http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2011/075/8/f/pray_for_japan___2_by_hmalvao-d3boqts.png

Image link: http://www.greenwashingindex.com/uploads/987_coca-cola-PlantBottle-5-566×311.jpg

Two years ago in 2009, Coca-Cola first introduced the PlantBottle, a beverage bottle made from up to 30% plant-based materials and 100% recyclable. Once again, Coca-Cola’s old friend- Pepsi, has beaten it by revealing the 100% plant-based bottle. It will be the world’s first petroleum-free plastic bottle when Pepsi launch it to reduce its carbon footprint in 2012.Image link: http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2011-03/60154792.jpg

Pepsi this week just announced it has figured out how to use switch grass, pine bark and corn husks to make 100％ recyclable and 100% plant-based bottle. The PlantBottle will have the same molecular structure and look indifferent from the normal beverage bottles. Even though Coca-Cola already has 2.5 billion of its 30% plant-based bottles on the market, while Pepsi would not begin pilot production of its new bottle until 2012, the release of this more environmental-friendly bottle will hurt Coca-Cola for sure.

Go-green is, and has always been one of the most popular, as well as most important social trends in today’s markets. Environmentalists have been critical of petroleum-based plastic because of their high carbon emissions and for being slow to biodegrade.Companies are working hard on how to make it sustainable  in the market. Sustainability is a major topic for R & D departments in most of companies. With sustainability added to it, the company’s brand has more value.

Obviously Pepsi and Coke, these two leading companies in beverage industry, have spend tremendous amount of time and money on competing with each other. There is no announcement about rising drinks’ prices because of the use of 100% plant-based bottle, so for consumers, there are no harms to get a more eco-friendly beverage, right?

Work Cited:  http://www.fastcompany.com/1739029/pepsico-trumps-cokes-plantbottle-with-100-plant-based-bottle

image link: http://blog.softwebmarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/starlogo.jpg

So, a new Starbucks logo is unveiled in the market, even though there are lots of criticizes coming with it. Starbucks omits its name and the word “coffee” in this new logo, and this move is infuriating many of  its loyal customers.  Chief Executive Howard Schultz stated that, “Even though we have been, and always will be, a coffee company and retailer, it’s possible we’ll have other products with our name on it and no coffee in it”, obviously Starbucks (without the word “coffee”), is experiencing certain changes within the company and wants to step into industries other than coffee, as well as being more “international”by removing the English language words.

As we learnt in Marketing class, packaging is a key brand element. A company’s visual presentation does effect customers purchasing decisions. Starbucks hasn’t changed its logo since year 1992, and now it hopes to broaden its brand image with a logo change.

I am not a fan of this new logo, and I would still prefer Starbucks keeping the old logo as it has become a symbol of history, the way it is always been, and changing the logo may cause Starbucks to lose some of its tradition. However, I would also say, the logo change won’t hurt cafe sales a lot, at least in the short term, because of its existed solid brand image. People are already familiar with the brand, and they come to Starbucks coffee stores not because of the beauty of the logo, they come for high quality coffee.  Eventually, people will accept the new logo, and actually, the change of logo gets people talking about Starbucks even more!

Work Cited: http://www.financialpost.com/Starbucks%20logo%20change%20draws%20consumer%20anger/4070197/story.html

In the Apple Store, we can find more than 100 000 applications especially games for the iPhone, iTouch or iPad. Software companies have seen in the success of different lines of these applications and it is an excellent opportunity for them to make money by putting their applications for free or buy in the Apple online store. Many game-design companies also have seen the great potential in mobile application markets and been designing all kinds of games.

100 000 apps is an impressive number. However, are there 100,000 worthwhile apps? Hardly. People may install at least one application each day, and nearly all of these are “free”. The so-called “lite” versions used to promote the “Paid” versions and there are people who will buy the full version of an application after the use of lite version. However, Apple needs to take a serious look at what applications they’ve posted on Apple Store. Based on the level of quality-or lack thereof-being published, it seems that they are not keeping up with reviewing applications or even they don’t care. Apple needs to do better than they currently does. Just think what it may be like when billions of application uploaded to the store. there will be many or a lot of “bad” applications that end-users will need to wade through.

Work cited: http://www.geek.com/articles/mobile/analysis-app-store-now-1-million-a-day-business-cloud-mobile-apps-the-next-big-thing-20090424/
Image: http://www.geek.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/one-billion-apps-hero-20090418.png

I would totally understand why people might want to purchase shanzhai products, especially in the phone market. I believe there is an increasing demand in the shanzhai phone market, particularly in China.

Shanzhai cell phones look exactly like the original branded products. Usually when a new cell phone is released, the copy or shanzhai version of it hits the market soon after. The cost for shanzhai phones is relative lower than the actual products for manufacturers, thus the phones are selling at a lower price.

There are some key reasons why people want a shanzhai phone. First and foremost, they are inexpensive and yet look exactly the same as the original model. Also, for many of the times, shanzhai phones have more functions than the “brand phone” because the software installed is usually a combination of several other systems. Therefore, people who want to have a fancy phone but do not want to spend a lot of money on it would like buying a shanzhai phone instead. Yet there are cases where people believe shanzhai phone has better systems and serves them better at their needs.

However, shanzhai phones have fatal disadvantages for sure, as they usually do not have as good qualities, thus lasting a shorter period of time compare to other phones. There can be no warranty or post-sale service associated with shanzhai phones.

There are over 550 million cell phone users in China. On average Chinese youth upgrade to a new mobile phone every 9-12 months in comparison to every 18-24 months in other countries (according to China Market Research Group (CMR) findings). It seems that there are good reasons for why consumers would choose to buy shanzhai phones and given how quickly a new phone is released, there is no surprise why shanzhai phone market is so popular. However, I still need to do more research to find out whether this whole issue is legal or not. If it is legal, I would not reject the shanzhai market is favorable for consumers.

Word Cited:
http://thechinaobserver.com/2009/01/05/no-matter-whether-you-call-it-%E5%B1%B1%E5%AF%A8%E6%9C%BA-shanzhai-or-bandit-phone-this-is-a-chinese-consumer-trend-worth-keeping-an-eye-on/

Shanzhai, literally means “mountain stronghold” in Chinese, however, the term also can refer to things that are piratical or home-made, generally crude in form and function. A “shanzhai” edition of product refers to those outside of government regulations , and there are numerous fake and knockoff electronics/commodities made in China today.

“Shanzhai” has been a phenomenon that goes far beyond the simplistic view of “copycat products” and in popular Chinese cultural, it is also used to describe a vendor who operates a business without observing traditional rules or practices — often resulting in innovative and unusual products or business models. This new business phenomenon is affecting all of our lives whether we realize it or not. Because pirating is rampant these days, sometimes the products you see or purchase are not the real brands you want. You may be “tricked” by some fake products as the products are very similar that you can not easily tell their differences. Here are some examples:

OLAY VS OKAY.

IVIKE VS NIKE.

iPhone Vs Hiphone

Especially in mobile market, buyers want to have a modern, popular phone, Shanzhai manufacturers therefore maintain this ruse with a passion and they sometimes manufacture phones which is indifferent the real ones, or even  add in some other multi-functions. The Shanzhai will continue to gain inspiration from all of these advancements, continuously striving to offer devices at unique local price points, often improving on brand names designs in the process. But what’s potentially very compelling is the possibility of more Shanzhai companies developing into brands themselves.

will continue talking about the Shanzhai next week  😀

Word Cited:

http://www.chinasmack.com/2008/pictures/funny-clever-chinese-shanzhai-brands.html

http://www.shanzai.com/market-mayhem/news

http://www.shanzai.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2512:top-tech-trends-to-look-out-for-2011&catid=8:op-ed

Images:

http://www.chinasmack.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/shanzhai09.jpg

http://www.chinasmack.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/shanzhai01.jpg

http://gadgetsrepublic.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/iphonesvshiphone.jpg

“Retail is a fiercely competitive sector, but exclusive research shows that while shops might try to beat each other on price, consumer perceptions of how cheap or expensive brands are is not as simple as seeing what rings up when the barcode is swiped.”–Michal Barnett, is your price strategy broken?  Marketing Week.

In the article, it mentions “on average, consumers get prices wrong by a margin of 13.2%. American shoppers come second worst to the UK with a 9.2% margin.” Therefore we sometimes get the wrong idea of what value he product is worth for.

Price, one of the marketing mix (4 Ps), has a clear demonstration of the value of the product itself and its market positions. Companies always determine the price of  their products carefully on the basis of the potential consumers’ preceptions of their value.

In the entertainment sector, people believe shopping online is cheaper than going into a store. “The importance of price here is readily apparent by brands such as Zavvi, formerly Virgin Megastores, disappearing from the high street.” What is more, HMV also has moved into live events and sound equipment from being so reliant on sales of physical CD and DVD, mainly because it can not compete with the online players such as Play.com. It shows that consumers’ price perception has not been very helpful, but this is not always the case.

For example, supermarket shopping.  Except convenience,  there is no convincing reasons most consumers choose online supermarket shopping over bricks-and -mortar stores.

However in many other sectors, it is better for us to have a clear idea of how much the product should be priced. We can do a bit background research such as comparing the prices of products that have same functions (different brands); different locations may sell for different price etc. However, this only works when the perceived benefits are overweight the perceived costs.

I agree with the article that, sometime it is more about a brand’s positioning and the dynamics of the market in which it operates, rather than the true value of the product.

While I was reading the blog “Customization vs. Personalization”, posted on The advertisInc Blog (UBC AdvertisInc), I realized that it would be a great topic for my weekly marketing blog post. In that post, Rachel brief described the meaning of the two words and gave examples for both customization and personalization with Starbucks and Dell. Here are some of  my opinions  on customization and personalization.

Some people may be confused with the terms: what is customization, and what is personalization? I would say, most of the time when you request something different from the standard offering , such as at a restaurant, it is considered customization. Whereas when your characteristics or preferences are considered or can be displayed in the product/service, it is personalization.

It seems that the people really enjoy personalization, and the feelings of satisfaction occurs when an individual has some kind of experience that the content adapts itself based on the person’s interests, opinions etc, and provides something new, different, and possibly unique and unexpected. I personally have always wanted to have a personalized iPod with my personal message engraved at the back of it as it is shown in the picture above. Because after the engraving, my iPod is unique, it is the only one in the world with my personal message on it, it is a personalized product.

Both customization and personalization make consumers feel welcome and both qualities foster customer loyalty, which vastly increases the chance of  enormous potential for increasing advertising and sales revenue.The concept of personalizing for customers is certainly not new, the question is how, how can the product/service to be personalized or customized, so that both companies and consumers benefit the most from it.

“Customization vs. Personalization” The AdvertisInc Blog,  UBC AdvertisInc

http://blog.advertisinc.ca/post/2830860118/customization-vs-personalization

When I first heard the phrase ” life was much easier when Apple and Blackberry were just fruits”, I laughed and told my friends as if it was just another amusing joke, yet I started thinking.

Obviously, Apple has a tremendous market here in North America. Over the past decade, Apple has launched a number of  legitimately game-changing innovations. iPad and iPhone 4, these two latest released products once again proved the immovable place Apple has in the global market. What makes Apple such a successful company since 1977 ? I believe innovation is the key.

Apple has been ranked at the top innovative company in the world. Most people agree iPod is Apple’s best innovation. It combines outstanding design, superb performance, easy-to-use  interface and an experience like no other. IPod is not just a product or a device but a brand that appeals aesthetically to which people have made an emotional connection.

Sustainable competitive advantage, this term comes up in my mind while I am writing. Namely, it is something one firm can persistently do better than its competitors, something can not be easily copied. All the innovative ideas Apple have are a part of their sustainable competitive advantages. Their creative way of thinking enables Apple Inc. to cause revolutions in the technological world again and again.

People have different preferences when choosing to purchase certain things/services. It is unfair to say Apple’s products are the best in the world, but these high-tech devices do perform better in many ways compare to other similar goods. Whatever Apple is introducing to the world, it is something new, it is something that better satisfies consumer needs and it is something innovatory.

There must be a lot of competitors who is watching Apple’s every action “covetously”. Now, Blackberry launched its first-touch screen product: Blackberry Torch, and there will be new round of competitions among Apple, Blackberry and other phone companies.  Well, if all the companies are busy fighting with each other, trying to gain more competitive advantages, we, as consumers will benefit the most in the end.