Month: November 2013

We are faced with making decisions everyday, some of them life changing, while some that are not so grand. However, regardless of the scale of these decisions, we believe that we are consciously making them by ourselves. Is this really true?

In Econ class we were talking about decision-making, while our professor showed us a ted talk about an interesting topic regarding decisions and whether we actually make our own, it made me think about the influence of marketing in our decision to buy products.

 

Recently I went on some online shopping sites to look at clothes and found some particular items that I really liked, but never gotten around to purchase. Of course I didn’t think about it any more. But what surprised me later was that when I was browsing on other websites, the same products that I was intending to buy showed up as an Ad.  Although it didn’t bother me that the Ads where there, it definitely is encouraging me to go and buy the products that I wanted. In fact it worked, I clicked on the sites and caved in.

 

 

I think this ties back to the decision making that I was talking about, although we are the ones who decide whether or not we should purchase these items, we are bombarded with influences and constant thoughts of these products that we are made into thinking that we absolutely need them. So on the outside, we are paying money for products we love and need, but the question is do we really like them? Do we really need them?

Has anyone else had experience like that?

 

Recently while browsing the blogs of my fellow class mates, I came across Serena’s blog that discussed the popularity of KFC in China.

 

In her blog Serena states that unlike the McDonald trend in Canada, Chinese people really love KFC and there are more KFC stores than McDonalds. Serena identifies KFC’s success because of their branding, selling a healthier alternative of fast food. I have the same observation.

When I went back to China last summer, I experienced both McDonald and KFC. While McDonald stayed mostly true to their North American roots by have an almost identical menu with few variations to the different taste of its consumers, KFC really surprised me.

 

 

What struck me the most was the breakfast menu, while there are more American options like hash browns , sausages and egg, there are also some traditional asian breakfast options like congee, soy milk, milk tea and radish pancakes.  This approach gives people options to choose, it also successfully caters to the needs of its clients. KFC has successfully targeted and has a full understanding of the needs of the market. By diversifying its products to fit the taste and needs of its customers.

 

KFC also identifies itself as a healthier alternative of fast food, catering to the concern of Chinese parents. They have really customized their product to fit the needs of consumers creating a new trend and new type of fast food that is differentiated and popular in China.