The discussion was lively, the professor's good and doesnt seem to run out of witty arguments. One thing I like best is the invocation of a lot of real-life case studies, like Google overtaking Coke as the number 1 brand, De Beers making a strong impression on their diamonds, Sony being a mass favorite for electronics, as so forth. I'm not really into theories in terms of studying marketing concepts.
My professor would always say it's all about 'branding and positioning', how do you want your product/service to be perceived, to be the top recall, and ultimately the choice of buying and consumption. AIDA - Create Awareness, Interest, Desire and (take) Action to close the deal. Below are excerpts taken from his article about AIDA, a good read.
A little known secret as well, Donald’s biggest marketing challenge was marketing himself to his wife. Having known her since she was 13 must have been a mean feat to suddenly market an image of potential husband material.
“Actually, it was more like how she marketed herself to me. I was captivated by her. She is definitely the better marketer because she applied the A.I.D.A. approach. She first created the AWARENESS to let me know she existed in Sunday School, made me INTERESTED to find out more about her, created the DESIRE to make me do things that I never thought I would and got me to take ACTION by going down on my knees to propose to her.”
We had several classroom exercises, out of those three were quite remarkable..
One was to think of a company that has strategic business units (SBUs). The example given was Procter and Gamble, like they have Pantene shampoo, Pringles chips, Gilette, soaps, diapers, etc etc. What a familiar example ;p. So what was my example.. none other than HP, they have desktop, laptops, IT outsourcing services, printers, PDAs, etc.. need I say more? I should know all these! Hmm two companies quite close to my heart. :)
The other was to think of a brand that was able to stand out from the competition. My example was Olympus, they have created a big impression for their underwater camera which has become a must-have item for divers and water sports lovers.
Lastly, we were asked to think of a product that is still existing nowadays despite the evolution of technology. This is pertaining to typewriters that has come to obsolency after the PC age, the walkmans that have been replaced by MP3 players. And my brilliant case.. the electric fan. :p No matter how advanced technology has evolved with the onset of split-type airconditioning units, each household will still have an electric fan. No special argument. It's just too useful not to have one and too hard to replace.
Fun fun. My creative juices are flowing. Seems like I've been hitting the right note. And they were surprised to know that I dont have any Marketing work experience. :)
There was a time when the topic was about packaging and distribution. The professor was talking about the economies of different countries. In Singapore, everything is in bulk, you have to buy tissues by the dozens. While in other countries like Philippines, India, we have sachet concepts. When talking about distribution, he suddenly asked, anyone of you familiar with Philippines? Philippines is a huge group of islands that designing distribution channels to penetrate the whole country is quite a challenge. 'so how many islands does Phil have? any guess? I feel like I have to raise my hand (I'd be too hypocrite if I pretend not to know). And I answered '7107 islands'.. At the back of my mind, I was really tempted to say 'high tide or low tide' ala Charlene Gonzales in Ms Universe pageant. hahaha just cant get it out of my head. After that people were all surprised to know that I am from Philippines because I dont look like one. Some started asking me stuff in Philippines. Whew suddenly I became a tourism spokesperson. :p
And oh I also realize it's really hard raising a kid. It hurts the pocket when you yourself are paying for tuition fees!
Sidenote: Short but I did try to enjoy every moment of it. My classmates were of normal level, not the geeks that I initially expected. Mostly female and shortage of male (no prospect hehe). There's one good-looking though, who humorously told me 'if i were you, i'd think of a way to shift out of IT and practice IE (my degree) as IE is a good paying job in SG'. Hehe too bad it's too late for me to look back and shift careers.. and oh too bad, he's married. haha of course I wont be mentioning anything here that would incriminate me. :p
P.S. I just got my class card last week. I got a B!
P.P.s I was hoping it was an A! haha :p
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