galilee's marketing

20501005 - Entry 14

2008-06-13T11:36:00.000-07:00

How to Build Brand Friendship
To create a truly powerful brand, you need to establish a sense of belonging, friendship, and dependability between product and customers

Summary

Human beings are social creatures. We need interaction with one another. It's the way we're made. When we meet someone new, we tend either to be drawn to them or to be disinterested for a whole host of reasons (some of which we may not even realize). Over time, however, we develop a continually evolving stable of relationships, some of which last for a lifetime.
That human dynamic is the root of brand loyalty as well. Our "relationships" with brands aren't nearly as deep or meaningful as human relationships, but they do share some of the same characteristics. The extent to which you can create a sense of belonging, friendship, and dependability between your brand and customers is the extent to which you have a powerful brand asset.

My Opinion

Throughout this semester, prof.Lee emphasized the importance of Value creation. What is the value creation? This article tell us that we can enhance and create brand value through creating a sense of belonging, friendship, and dependability between the brand and customer. It seems to me that the value of brand is priceless. Whenever I studied about some successful cases, the cases were always related to the strong brand power. It is critical to make the brand powerful. If somebody asked you "Is Nike a better shoe than Reebok?"You might say "Sure" Can you answer the reason? How do you feel when you hear the word'Nike'?Well, I might think of "Just do it"and also if we see soccer game,we can see many players who wear nike products.This can be a consequence of adding value. Brand managers should reposition the value of brand into customers' heart by using creating those I mentioned above.

Reference: "How to build brand friendship" by Steve McKee , Business Week, May 9, 2008

20820007 Entry - 14

2008-06-12T22:52:00.000-07:00

How Nokia Users Drive Innovation

By Jack Ewing

Through online aps such as Sports Tracker and Nokia Beta Lab, the Finnish handset giant gathers customers' ideas from around the world—virtually free

In March 2007, Nokia has introduced a new mobile phone application Sport Tracker on a company web site. Program was designed to take full advantage of the computing power in some Nokia handset models. Customer’s response was great to it more than 1 million people downloaded the program for sports that developers never dreamed of, like hot- air ballooning and motorcycle riding. Therefore users gave criticisms to develop online groups where users can share favorite routes and photos they took along the way. Sport Tracker became opportunity to Nokia experience with user- generated innovation. That’s the premise behind Nokia Beta Labs, a web site where the Finnish handset maker lets users test Smartphone software. The site became a good opportunity to them to survey and focus groups to measure reactions of customers to new product. At Nokia. Com users can share applications they created such as games and screen savers. Besides it, Nokia designers have traveled overseas (Mumbai, Rio de Janeiro, Accra in Ghanna) to sketch users their own dream mobiles. People were very innovative: one person’s design included a sensor to test water quality and another wanted a handset that flashed the word “Peace” that help defuse conflicts. Since Nokia launched the Beta Labs web site last year with Sport Tracker as the debut application it become a prime destination for lead users – tech savvy buyers of high- end. Nokia is benefiting from free applications such as Sport Tracker because they could capture how users are creative than just make phone calls. They are seeing that the application at amateur athletes was too narrow.

Opinion

I think Nokia is very sensitive and creative about the market where they operate. They benefited from free applications they offer for customers which bring them idea that not only great new product ideas come inside the company but there are many potential ideas inside the company. The most interesting thing is they are getting ideas and innovations free. I think reason is because Nokia is offering free services for its users to use their handsets fully which is making chance to express their feelings about new products and services just after try it. I have never heard about mobile with sensor to test water quality if Nokia can implement this kind of innovative ideas they can be first movers in this industry which will help them to deliver value more effectively by meeting customers changing needs. Therefore for company where most sales come from new products very important listening to the customers in order to prevent future risks they might face.

Reference : How Nokia Users Drive Innovation, by Jack Ewing
http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/europe/special_reports/20080428europeaninn.htm?chan=globalbiz_europe+index+page_innovation+%2Bamp%3B+design

20820014 Entry- 14

2008-06-12T22:46:00.000-07:00

The New IPhone Is Ready for Business

Apple’s iPhone was announced ready for business at an Apple technical conference in San Francisco.
The new iPhone will use a “3G,” and wireless network to transmit data about three times faster than the EDGE network it currently uses. Also it will support Microsoft’s Office software, including Word, Excel and PowerPoint; and it will have built in GPS, which allows estimating salesperson’s direction and exposing destination..
A software upgrade for the iPhone designed to make it more appealing to businesses. The software makes it possible to access Microsoft’s Exchange email over the iPhone and employs technology from Cisco to ensure that data sent between businesses and employees’ iPhones are secure. So, it requires businesses to develop their own software for the iPhone to distribute the software through Apple’s new App Store.
The business-technology leaders talked to were ambivalent about this last feature: A customers, who used Apple products were reluctant to share their internal software with Apple, which is necessary to get it into the App Store. However, Apple announced that businesses will be able to distribute soft through corporate intranets.
Details of the new service are still sketchy, so, some businesses feeling uncomfortable with employees storing corporate data on Apple’s equipment.
But Apple CEO Steve Job said that 35% of Fortune 500 companies are testing the iPhone. That’s a huge number, even if the tech departments at some of these businesses are probably just tinkering with the device
My opinion
Well, IPhone was announced ready for business. Whereas, are business companies ready for IPhone?
Apple has announced for a long time, it is producing new improved phone which makes business more comfortable, friendly and easier through its software program. I noticed this from this article to utilize or connect with IPhone corporate internal net, companies must install new service. Therefore companies are willing to connect this network?

In addition, new products and services keep consumers and launch customer loyalty but I wonder that this article says Apple consumers don’t want to store their data in this network. Probably, this is nice opportunity to Apple to get know its consumers through their network, and I don’t understand why consumers want to hide their information?

According to chapter 11 Developing new products, analyzing Iphone’s compatibility, observability , trialibility, and relative advantage I phone has high potential for sale because:
- It’s famous brand. So observability is much more noticeable than other phones. Many believe that Apple has high quality, so relative advantage is perceived it can be the best alternative, and also its GPS and own software makes it easy to try and enhance trialability

Title: IPhone is ready for business written by Ben Worthen, June13, 2008.
http://blogs.wsj.com/biztech/

20501005 - Entry 13

2008-06-06T09:37:00.000-07:00

Hyundai Motor targets Russia`s middle class

▲Rolf Altufijevo dealership in Moscow

Summary
MOSCOW - Hyundai Motor Co. is looking to tap the growing middle class to consolidate its position in the Russian car market. Since first exporting to Russia in 1990, the company has grown rapidly to become one of the country`s largest carmakers. The company currently has the second largest market share among foreign carmakers in Russia after General Motors Corp.`s Chevrolet. Among all carmakers, Hyundai Motor holds the third largest market share. Last year the company sold about 148,000 units and recorded a market share of 9.3 percent. For 2008, the company hopes to raise sales by 35 percent to reach 200,000 units. "In the past, cheaper Russian cars like the Lada were popular but with more people joining the middle class, Hyundai cars are gaining more and more attention," said Dmitry Sergeev, the director of the Rolf Altufijevo dealership in Moscow.

My Opinion
When I was in New Zealand, I was very proud that there were many Korean company cars on the streets. Among those I could see many Hyundai cars. Most of my foreign friends said they prefer Hyundai cars to Japanese cars such as Toyota, Mizda. I asked them why. The reason was cheap price but also practicality. As you see Hyundai cars have comparative advantage in price compared to other cars, Benz, Toyota, GM etc. So Hyundai decided to reposition in Russian car market for the middle class. The middle class people might be eager to have a car that has lower price than luxurious cars and practicality. I think Hyundai made a good decision. Getting into international market is very important for Hyundai because of domestic market which is already saturated. A few monthes ago, I heard Hyundai launched selling new model 'Genesis'. When I saw its prototype, I was shocked. It was amazing, and I could not believe Korean company made it. Anyway Genesis has many advantages(strengths) in price, practicality, design, and power. I think Genesis will be a beneficial model for positioning in the middle class. In FTA era, we can only survive by improving and changing ourselves. I hope Hyundai will successfully change into a real global company by knowing foreign customer's value and needs.

20400442-ENTRY 13

2008-06-06T09:05:00.000-07:00

One Laptop Meets Big Business

For this week's article, I chose the story of "One Laptop for Per Child" planned and exercised in Peru by the government. The article is cynical about so many problems of bringing about OLPC in third world countries to innovate the social and educational conditions.

They say that the fate of OLPC is uncertain, and it's too early to judge the effectiveness of the computers. Still, it's possible to draw lessons about the difficulties of such grand-scale social innovation. The group's struggles show how hard it is for a nonprofit made up largely of academics to operate like a business and compete with powerful companies. They also show what happens when differing philosophies of education and beliefs in how software should be created go head-to-head. Values the group has promoted have met resistance in the marketplace, government bureaucracies, and classrooms. That Negroponte and his colleagues took on way more tasks than they could handle only complicates the situation further.

Opinion

Reading this article paraphrasing how hard it is to implement one laptop for every child in third world coutries, one thought came to my mind that it could be a chance for Korean portal sites like Naver or Daum to go worldly-known sites. Google, for instance, has not only their original English sites, but also so many sites world-wide in so many different language and properly culturalized services and programs.

Third world coutries, in another words, are countries where potential markets with less competitors exist, especially internest business. In my opinion, carefull and thoughtful marketing can be a first big step toward the world for Korean big portal sites to become so much successful like Yahoo and Google through OLPC!

Reference: One Laptop Meets Big Business by Steve Hamm and Geri Smith , Business Week, June 5, 2008

20501034 - Entry 13

2008-06-06T06:41:00.000-07:00

Lee's trouble deepens, undermining mandate

Original Article by Hwang Jang-jin on Jun. 3. 2008

(Korea Herald)

The relationship between political crisis and candle business

Summary.

President Lee is in trouble. Tens of thousands citizen took to streets in recent days demanding scrapping the beef import deal. Following violent police crackdowns Saturday, the slogan changed to “Resign Lee Myung-bak, Down with the Dictatorship.” Not only US beef import deal but also English-only education and Canal bring people into the street to protest against President Lee with candle.

My opinion

It is very natural that sales of products increase along with economic growth. However, sales of certain items such as noodle and Soju increase when economy go down. It is called ‘Giffen goods’.

I found the peculiar products like candle that has tendency to boost its sales along with political crisis. In most developed countries, Candle is obsolete as the infrastructure became stable and there is less and less possibility to happen electrical black-out. However, somebody found another way of using candle and they started to use candle to protest against government policy. Once candle protest culture settled in Korea, the sale of have been soared whenever political crisis happened. It could be compared with the concept of value preposition which Professor Lee taught us in the class with example of baking soda.

For business students, it is so important to think out of the box. From now on, not only somebody who create something new but also someone who can find different use of existing material will be valuable business man.

20820007 Entry – 13

2008-06-05T23:21:00.001-07:00

Coach builds It’s Brand in China

The leather goods maker has opened a new Hong Kong flagship and plans to acquire all of its outlets in China, Hong Kong and Macao managed by local distributors.

By Frederik Balfour

Hong Kong is label- conscious society where you can identify women’s place by the bag on her arm. Many people are making bee lines for these luxury hand bag stores like Luis Vuitton, Ferragamo, Gucci and Hermes. President of Coach Bickley says that they see a big opportunity in China and if they opened flagship store it will find a place on shoppers’ itineraries. Coach bags cost from $200- $400 making it top of the premium segment or the bottom of the luxury segment. According to New – York based Coach figures that Coach has more awareness and attracts loyal customers. Bickley estimates the market for woman’s leather goods in Great China region will more than double in the next five years, from $1.2 billion to $2.5 billion. He is going to increase the current sales from $30 million with a 3% market share to 10% with $205 million in sales. In order to achieve this growth they made a decision to manage its own stores. It currently has 24 locations and planning to open 50 new stores in China, Hong Kong, and Macao within the next five years. Also company hopes to open Coach’s first flagship store in Shanghai within the next 12 to 14 months. Bickley think that now China and rest of Southeast Asia will keep the company busy and Coach is not going to enter India where retail distribution is still immature.

My Opinion

I found that according to New - York based Luxury Institute’s Luxury Brand Market analysis for luxury hand bags Coach has largest mindshare among wealthy customers, 52 % of them said that they are familiar with Coach Brand and it leads at 29% of market share. It means that Coach is leading company in producing luxury hand bags in America and Europe. I think hand bags are very important accessory for woman which defines the wealthy woman’s social class and her fashion tastes. Therefore it is very common phenomenon in China too, especially in Macao and Hong Kong where many people can afford for Coach Bags worth $200. It is realistic that Chinese rapidly growing economy with 1.3 billion people can keep 50 stores in it driving the company to increase its market share within 5 years. Moreover Coach’s partnership with Imaginex will build brand awareness in Greater China to win customer’s confidence about the brand.

Reference: http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/jun2008/gb2008064_054209.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_global+business

20820014 Entry- 13

2008-06-05T19:43:00.000-07:00

Infosys CEO Muses on Globalization

How are India-based tech companies trying to win U.S. customers, dealing with high turnover, and globalization?

Gopalakrishnan, CEO of the India-based outsourcing company Infosys talk about some issues his company is facing. Some highlights:
*The tech-services industry continues to evolve rapidly. While India-based companies made their names offering low-level programming at a low price. The one tactic to expand its margin Infosys would like to buy small consulting firms in countries.
*Tech companies in India have high attrition rates because there’s so much demand there for experienced engineers. One way that Infosys is combating the problem is transferring employees to facilities in smaller, more remote cities in India–where there are fewer competitors to try to steal its workers. To encourage workers to move, Infosys pays the same regardless of whether someone is in Bangalore, the city at the heart of India’s tech boom, or Jaipur, a city in the rural state of Rajasthan where the cost of living is substantially lower.
*Infosys is sensitive to immigration concerns in the U.S., but the tech sector is evolving makes further globalization inevitable. India graduates 450,000 engineers each year and China 650,000. The U.S. only graduates 150,000. With numbers like this, U.S. companies will have little choice but to hire engineers from abroad or open development centers overseas.

Gopalakrishnan points out that globalization is a two-way street: U.S. products from corn flakes to California wine are now widely available in India, which is hurting the 70% of the population there that works in agriculture. “These people are the poorest of the poor and they are losing jobs,” he tells us.

My opinion
This article seems very similar our case study article in someway. They both use same strategy which is to buy small firms to expand its market and deal with troubles. I realized that how marketers take advantage from small business companies or globalization especially if those companies were placed in developing countries with low expense, and low labor cost. In one hand it seems unfair. Because those small firms product have same quality and acceptable to the market like big brand company. But they cannot sell it under own name with same price as big companies. Once professor mentioned that Samsung had sold under the name of Sony in U.S. In fact customers get same value of both those products.
On the other hand, both companies can take advantage from this commitment, could be mutually lucrative. Even though small firm sells its product with lower price, their market share has high potential to increase rapidly. In this case if small firms indeed can produce high quality or high tech product it has high potential to increase its market and make high profit. After that probably small firm could separate its business and sell its products under own name or evolve brand.
Also, I see that how marketers prevent from competitors by building invisible wall between them
– move high experienced employers to countryside. In addition, it is very astute and deceptive decision to move workers in lower cost of living area. Even though company pay same salary as it did before, because of lower cost of living this same amount of salary could be incentive.
Reference: Infosys CEO Muses on Globalization
http://blogs.wsj.com/biztech/2008/06/05/infosys-ceo-muses-on-globalization/
June6, 2008 author name was not written.

20501005 - Entry 12

2008-05-30T11:48:00.000-07:00

Low Prices Are Not Always Your Friend
Cutting prices might seem reasonable given the state of the economy, but doing so could backfire over the long run, argues our columnist

Summary
1. Price as an Indicator of Value
2. For Long-Term Success, Higher Prices
3. Face It, You're Not Wal-Mart
The author's idea
That thought reminded me of another shopping experience, this time revolving around jewelry. I recently inherited a ring from my grandmother that was somewhat dated, but featured a beautiful aquamarine, my wife's birthstone. I knew she would love the stone, so I set out to find a jeweler who could redesign the ring into a pendant in time for her birthday.
I visited three or four different jewelry stores, trying to find one that would offer design talent, a personal touch, and a willingness to work within my budget. And as I evaluated my own decision process, I observed something interesting and somewhat surprising—I gravitated toward the most expensive option.

My Opinion
Last semester I happened to research about Starbuck's story, and I realized that one of its successful strategies was 'High Pricing Stratagy'. Especially in Korea, it works really well!!
There are many women who want to become like Hollywood stars tend to like Starbuck's coffee. Most of them go to Starbuck only for a cup of coffee but for a take-out cup which can be a fashion item. Moreover there is a word for this situation. Have you heard of 'Veblen Good'?
I'd like to tell you about this term. According to the economic dictionary, Veblen goods are a theoretical group of commodities for which peoples' preference for buying them increases as a direct function of their price, instead of decreasing according to the theory of supply and demand. It is claimed that some types of high-status goods, such as diamonds or luxury cars, are Veblen goods, in that decreasing their prices decreases people's preference for buying them because they are no longer perceived as exclusive or high status products. Similarly, a price increase may increase that high status and perception of exclusivity, thereby making the good even more preferable. The Veblen effect is named after the economist Thorstein Veblen, who first pointed out the concepts of conspicuous consumption and status-seeking.
It is very interesting for me and I think I have experienced this effect before. When I worked as a waiter in an Italian restaurant, there were lots of expensive dishes. However, I saw there were always lots of customers who had willingness to pay. I could not understand at that time because It was too expensive, But now I understand that hige price can be good in some fields of business. Because people might think high price has higher value.

Reference: Businessweek Sales&Marketing by Steve McKee April 14 , 2008
Wikipedia.org

20501034 - Entry 12

2008-05-30T08:30:00.000-07:00

An iPhone Request: GPS, Please

May 30, 2008 by Hesseldahl from Business Week

Original Article

Summary

Apple’s iPhone ‘s users are asking the function of GPS(Global Positioning System). The smartphone’s chief competitors like blackberry offer real satellite navigation systems. And Nokia is also considering GPS strategically important that last year it spent $8.1 billion to acquire Chicago’s Navteq; a digital mapmaker that supplies all the major navigation device companies.

As a matter of fact, iPhone provide GPS but it is often described as pseudo GPS to determine its location. Instead of getting a true location fix from the GPS satellites orbiting Earth, it determines its position in part by using the nearest cell towers, using technology from Google. The thing is that it isn’t quiet accurate. Sometimes it shows you a block or two away from where you actually are. Frequently it will put you within 100 feet.

My opinion

I am not using iPhone. I am using Samsung’s Anycall. It functions as camera, mp3 player, movie viewer, blue tooth, calculator, memo, dictionary and etc. It is obvious that cell phone is evolving in a way of combining numerous functions inside of it. Navigation function hasn’t embedded in mobile phone yet but I think in couple of years it will be very common to find navigation in the ordinary cell phone. Navigation will work in various ways and it will create numerous new business opportunities. Can you imagine that if one is hungry, cell phone automatically recommend you the nearest restaurant. Can you imagine that if one gets hurt, the cell phone find the nearest hospital and asking for an ambulance. Cell phone navigation will be the most popular advertising tool because it brings right information for the right people. In my perspective, if cell phone’s navigation system is combined with database system, it will have huge impact on the society because cell phone, itself can sort out highly desired information for the cell phone owner based on what he chosen in purchasing history.

20820014 Entry-12

2008-05-30T01:13:00.000-07:00

Who Benefits From Higher Gas Prices? Auto Insurers.

Drive less, Pay less

The article is generally about how insurance companies make a profit due to steeply increased price of gasoline. As the increasing cost of gasoline forces U.S. drivers to keep their cars in the garage, as a result, there is less chance for an accident.
It makes sense to less driving means fewer accidents, which will help boost auto insurer earnings. U.S. Department of Transportation report indicates that auto mileage dropped by 4.3% in March compared to the year ago month. As a matter of fact, the report won’t be news to auto insurers, because they have already seen the reduced accidents
The third- largest auto insurer company “Progressive” offers “drive less, pay less” campaign which encourage drivers’ less risky- driving habits.
However insurers get benefit from increased price of gas, still there is negative effect to the repair companies. Due to higher material cost, the cost of repairing vehicles also increased.
My opinion
One barrel crude oil costs $126.62 in the U.S market by the report of May 30, 2008 on the wall street journal. As we all know that crude oil price has increased steeply in recent few months. Gasoline as a basic cost of all goods and services, almost in each country it causes high inflation. In Mongolia due to increased price of raw material ( gasoline, wheat etc) and unstable government situation, inflation up to almost 30% . Therefore I thought that increasing price of gasoline only benefits to huge oil exporter countries like Saudi an Arabia, Emirate or any other big exporters and never imagine that insurance company or third part companies could be benefited. From this article I saw that agile marketers can find out any expected advantage or value even situation is tough.
But I read that oil price tends to decrease in second quarter. Or probably because of some government actions like embargo, international agreement on trade, oil could cost less. At that time people will drive more, and accident rate could be increased again.

reference:

http://blogs.wsj.com/marketbeat/2008/05/29/who-benefits-from-higher-gas-prices-auto-insurers/

TItle: Who Benefits From Higher Gas Prices? Auto Insurers, by MarketBeat Staff

May30, 2008

20820007 Entry - 12

2008-05-30T00:04:00.000-07:00

Mobile Service Boom in India

300 million cell phones vs. 30 million PCs

Indian mobile market is ranking in the second place on earth. Today about 300 million people are using cell phones and 8 million new subscribers sign up every month. Last year Indians spent about $250 million on extra services such as text messaging, games, wallpaper for mobile display, music and internet. Why demand for these services is huge? Because there are only 30 million PCs in the country and e-commerce is still not popular through Internet. Therefore average revenue in the country is $10 compare to China $12 and $30 in United States and the mobile cost per minute is as little as 1.2 cents vs. 8.4 cents in Pakistan and 3.5 cents in China. So while offering low price calls many services remain luxury for many Indians who use cheap cellular phones but want the same services available for premium handset. The demand for these extra services became a reason for many multinationals like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft’s MSN to be sharer in the market. They are cooperating with great number of top telecom providers such as Vodafone, Reliance Communication and Tata Teleservices in order to offer information like taxi services, stock quotes, news and hospital and business listings. The range of offerings is extensive. Airtel, Indian leading company offers weather forecasts and sells mobile services which allow users to make purchase in stores and book train and flight tickets using their mobile instead of credit cards. Hence by these services telecom providers want to increase the share of their income currently 10% of revenue and 13% of profits on average, to about 20%.

“India is leading the way for mobile solutions globally.” Manoranjan Mohapatra CEO at carrier Bharti Telesoft.

Opinion

I think Indian telecom providers can increase their revenue share if they find the ingenious ways to fulfill needs of mobile users considering big market and population of the country. Now days customers are mostly focusing on convenience and leisure so many users in India think that handsets are their extension of their self and a cool one stop shop for many personal needs. Especially young people have high aspirations but they can’t satisfy it from banking to entertain. So it is very important to make value preposition by understanding customer’s expectations because service is intangible, perishable, variable and inseparable. Indian cellular phone users expect to get more than from their mobiles then just talk. Let’s see how companies in the country will please their customers and increase their revenue.

Reference: http://www.businessweek.com/

20400442--ENTRY 12

2008-05-29T22:17:00.000-07:00

LG Will Clean Up, With or Without GE

This week's article is about our home-proud company LG. The LG Total Capacity Refrigerator which has 15" LCD TV with FM radio, temperature adjustment, room temperature display, water controls, a weather & info center, recipes, digital photo album, calendar, BioShield Anti-Bacterial Seal and other features.

LG is "clearly one of the leading candidates," GE Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt said during his short visit. One might thing, 'What on earth is he talking about?'. It is that LG is trying to move to the continent of money, America market, to achieve further success, like it is showing in India and other countries. LG is occuping merely 70% of Korean house appliances. However, it is not all that easy.

Success in the more mature U.S. market would, of course, be harder to achieve on its own. Still, in the U.S., LG has made remarkable progress in the past four years with its strategic focus on premium segments. The Korean maker has targeted consumers willing to pay a few hundred dollars extra for snazzy designs and high performance. LG's sleek washing machines, for instance, last year commanded a 22.8% share of the market for more expensive front-loading washers priced at up to $2,500. That's up from only 6% three years earlier.

That is why LG is considering a close business relation with GE.

Opinion

When I was in Thailand and America for my junior-high, I still remember how shocking it was to see a building-sized samsung logo on the broadway. And also, LG flat TV hung at the UN lobby. They are the promotion of Korea as a successful nation with high technology and high standard of living.

As we studied in the class, Korea has high technology to sell around the world, but marketing strategy is so bad. One example is Hyundai compared to Toyota. Toyota's tech is not so up high, but they use the tech in such a way to fulfill customers' delicate taste.

International market penetration require much research about the market's specific preferences. In this sence, merger with GE would bring positive effect to LG.

Reference. LG Will Clean Up, With or Without GE by Moon Ihlwan, Business Week

May 29, 2008

20820014 Entry-11

2008-05-23T03:44:00.000-07:00

Predicting the Apple brands by 2013
Apple Daydreaming Report Predicts Move Toward Home Devices
/ summary /
According to the Apple fans purchasing tendency, the Forrester Research draw a crystal ball in a new report that imagines the Apple products of 2013. The research firm uses the company's recent history as a guide to forecasting.
Forrester's conclusion: While much of Apple's great successes have been mobile products such as the iPod and the iPhone, the company will seek to colonize rooms throughout the home.
Among the new products Forrester predicts Apple will create are wall-mountable digital picture frames with small high-definition screens and speakers that wirelessly play media, including photos, videos and music, stored on a computer elsewhere in the home.
For the bedroom, Apple "clock radio" pipes in music and other media across a home network. Possible, too, is an "AppleSound" universal remote control, also with a touch-sensitive screen, that lets users browse their music collections and change the songs playing through their stereo as they stroll around the house. This latter technology is already available in primitive form through an application of Apple's iTunes program.
Forrester also thinks Apple could extend into the home the technical assistance currently offered by "Genius Bar" personnel in Apple retail stores. Apple in-home installation services will become especially important as its array of products for the home grows.
Moreover, one long-running prediction proved that Apple might make a television set. Apple will one day get into the business as conventional TV makers start to integrate into their sets the ability to surf the Web. Apple already designs computer displays that are as large as some HDTVs.
Researchers think Apple could simplify the traditional functions on TV sets, like the bewildering electronic programming guides that list the hundreds of channels available to viewers. "Most people find operating high-quality TV systems incredibly awkward”
My opinion
It's interesting thinking about what could be Apple’s next digital invention in five years. Apple has already built strong sustainable competitive advantage its world of delivering display devices. The iPod remains the top MP3 player, with more than 70% of the market, and Apple is now the top retailer of music in the nation. Less than a year after entering the cell phone business with the iPhone, Apple became the second-largest provider of smart phones in the U.S. I don’t know exactly whether my opinion is right or not. But since the company has succeed its current market, it should innovate new products for its not only existing market but also new market to increase its wallet share. As time goes today’s star products sale rate would be decreased. At that time use its large lucrative products as cash flow to produce new star product to remain its competitive advantage and number1 retailer position.
Reference: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121140284684611795.html?mod=fpa_mostpop,

Apple Daydreaming: Report Predicts Move Toward Home Devices by Nick Wingfield, May 23, 2008

20501005 - Entry 11

2008-05-22T23:43:00.001-07:00

Jeju seeks investment to become business hub

Promote Jeju!! Make Jeju a place where everyone wants to visit and do businesses.

Summary
The Jeju government said yesterday it will focus on three key development projects -- medical tourism, technology based-industrial complex and English town -- to develop the resort island into an international business and tourism hub. Calling the island, "the land of promise," Kim Tae-hwan, governor of the Jeju Special Self-governing Province said in an investment seminar held at a hotel in Seoul yesterday that he will make the island the most favorable place to stay and to invest in East Asia. The investment forum, which drew about 600 participants, was jointly hosted by the government of the Jeju provincial government and the Jeju Free International City Development Center.

My Opinion
This is an article about how Jeju tries to reposition and create value for attracting foreign people and investors . It seems to me it is very similar to what president. Lee said couple of weeks ago in Korea investment forum. In that forum, President Lee suggested and promised he will reduce many barriers such as tariff and many taxes to attract foreign direct investment. It was very impressive that president. Lee stated “Welcome all of you to Korea, please invest to Korea! I am CEO of Korea and I am here to promote Korea!” He seemed to be a marketer who sells the product ‘Korea’ to foreign companies. I think he did very good job. This is an era in which Korea is suffering from economic recession. I think we can't overcome the economic difficulties without F.T.A or direct investment from foreign companies. Like president. Lee did, Kim Tae-hwan, governor of the Jeju Special Self-governing Province is doing good job. He emphasize on Jeju’s strengths; medical tourism, technology based-industrial business and tourism hub. I was very surprised that Daum, which is one of biggest IT companies in Korea, has moved its head quarter to Jeju Island.
To sum up, these efforts might be very helpful to Jeju. All leaders should be a great marketer and promote well. This is how we can survive in such competitive era.

Reference:Jeju seeks investment to become business hub by Cho Chung-un(christory@heraldm.com), May 22, 2008, The Korea Herald

20820007 Entry – 11

2008-05-22T22:50:00.000-07:00

Your Employees Are Dying To Be Heard

Poor communication could be costing you business in more ways than you might imagine.

By Carmine Gallo

/Summary/

A firm which is working 60 year on research - Opinion Research (IUSA) found that ‘poor communication’ is main factor that makes employees to annoy. And unsatisfied and unhappy employees may cause danger in your business that you will never imagine. So they are suggesting some suggestions how to make better communication between your employees.
Solicit opinion. In U. S many employees think that they can not participate and influence in the organizational activities. Also in 2007 research showed that employees were annoyed by their managers who are failed to talk about company’s news.
Communicate change. We are living in constant changing economy so that managers should communicate with their workers and tell them why the change is necessary and how should they implement changes to prevent further danger. It makes positive atmosphere even it is not acceptable by all of them at that time. If you do not do these it may cause negative perception, disengagement and makes changes tougher to implement.
Include employees in feedback loop. Many companies do surveys to get feedback from customers by via the Web, over the phone or with suggestion box to make sure how their products and services perceived in the market but they usually do not communicate and inform results to people who are actually doing the selling and presenting the brand. This situation produces no chances to implement the necessary changes.
Make communication personal. Many managers are loosing chances to make good impression to their employees just sitting in their offices instead of meeting them face to face. Opinion Research are suggesting to contact personally with your employees at least once a week.
Finally, if you want to know whether you are communicating enough with your workers Reilly director of Opinion Research recommends you ask: “Are you getting enough information to do your jobs effectively?” Then do not forget to make special attention to the answers.

Opinion

In text book says that we are not living in vacuum, we are interacting with other people and we need a communication with others especially with our staffs in the organization. Definition of Business is achieving organizational goals through people. And this article reveals what is the main internal problem in the organization that makes consequences to achieve these goals. The problem is communication. I also agree that when people feel comfortable and confident work hard and achieve their full potential. Comfortable and confidence comes by communicating and by knowing thought of others and putting it into action that they can know they are important. Also I understand that it is very important to always to make sure to which direction company is going, what kind of changes they should do in order to reach the final point and what they think about the process. In other hand there might occur the questions when employees have not sufficient information about products and services they presenting. In this case book focuses to educate employees before present our service and product so we can succeed and gain customers trust.

Reference: http://www.businessweek.com/

20400442-Entry 11

2008-05-22T18:23:00.000-07:00

"Marketing Bullet" vs "Customer-motivating Design"

Johnson & Johnson's, one of America's most prominent Fortune 500 companies, is focusing on the packages and overall design; previously Johnson & Johnson's hasn't have their own design derictor, but they have outsourced their packages and design.

Apparently simple repackaging of J&J's flagship brand keeps the iconic teardrop but adds cleaner type and tinted bottles. Furthermore, big box stores considered Band-Aid's previous cardboard bulk package to be forbidding. The new version features a set of interlocking plastic cases—and is now stocked by stores such as Costco. Johnson & Johnson acquired the Rembrandt brand in 2005, revamping the product line before relaunching it last May. All these changes are to focus on the customers' value and as a result design truely motivates the customers to take the product home.

The article says, Hacker has always had the support of management, but changing the company's approach to design hasn't been easy. "We're bringing a problem-solving process to our marketing partners that they aren't used to," he says of his centralized approach. "It's been a challenge."

Hacker also hopes to change the way designers and corporations think about sustainability. "Everything we do is as sustainable as we can make it," he says. "It's part of the process, but it's not the definition. We're designing to create positive consumer experience, and while we do that—by the way—we're also making it sustainable. I'm on a mission to tell designers that sustainability has got to be a part of what they do."

Opinions

The whole point of the design-driven marketing and design that truely meat customers need is to produce sustainable advantages and competitiveness. As we learned in the class, design of the products and the packages of them are becoming one of the best promotion that can improve the perceived value. It is worth noting the importance of the design one more.

Reference:
Johnson & Johnson's Big Design Challenge by Mark Lamster , May 21, 2008, Business Week

20501034 Entry 11

2008-05-22T12:12:00.000-07:00

American Idol's Ads Infinitum

Original Article

May 22, 2008
by Ronald Grover from Businessweek

Summary

Seven years into a monster ratings run, Fox Entertainment’s American Idol has become as much a marketing showcase as musical slugfest. Many prestigious companies like Apple, AT&T, Coke put huge amount of money for product placement in American Idol. This year advertising agencies figuring out which age group is watching the show and the age group was proved as a mom. So, American Idol added Apple considering their purchasing pattern.

My opinion

PPL(Product Placement) became very effective method in advertising. The first time I realized Product Placement for the first time when I was watching the movie “ Shiri”. It was very nice movie, but sometimes the movie directors too much emphasize on particular brand name. So it wasn’t easy to just concentrate on the movie.

To maximize the profit, for the advertisement agency, their best interest is to show their product as frequently as possible. However, lots of product placements on the show discourage people to watch the show because no one would want to see commercial through the show. The relationship between the number of commercials which placed on the show and the number of audience could be regarded as an inverse proportion. If we put the number of commercials on x axis and put the number of audiences on y axis, it is vital to find the point or spot on this inverse proportion that maximize the square. In this point, audience not only enjoy the show but also tolerate many commercials.

20501034 Entry 10

2008-05-16T07:45:00.001-07:00

Choice Between Market Share and Brand

Original Article

For Sony TVs, a New Downscale Front

by Kenji Hall who is BusinessWeek's technology correspondent in Tokyo on May 15th, 2008

Owing to economic downturn and stiff competition in their industry, Sony has begun to selling its models through US mass merchandise chain Wal-Mart, and electronic-specialty stores like Best Buy and Circuit City. Just a few years ago, Sony avoided selling their products at a discount stores or Wal-Mart. As a result, Sony lost out to Samsung, LG and Philips. The product line also became entry level model from premium model. Market researchers expect that in the long term those movements will hurt Sony’s premium image.

Due to all its effort, the volume Sony sold rose 8.7%. Despite of its sales growth, the revenues they made was proved flat. It reflects a harsh reality in the TV business.

My opinion

I agree on how Sony executives decided. These days, the competition occurring in TV industry is far beyond the description. Not only domestic competitors, Sharp, Panasonic but also global competitors like Samsung, LG, Philips are struggling to win the competition. To play in this environment, Sony didn’t have many options but joining the bargaining race.

One interesting thing about this article is that author contrasted Sony’s strategy with Toyota’s premium line, Lexus. However, I wish he brought better model to contrast. TV and automobile is too different things to directly contrast. TV is something to put in our house and enjoy using for customers by themselves while the car is something shown to other people and often people judge people by their car. If they have to choose one of items that they have to cut their budget, it would be the TV. In other words, people seem to be sensitive about price for a TV. Therefore in this economic downturn, people who are involved in TV industry should catch consumer’s purchasing capability faster and react faster than the people who work in car industry do.

In addition, the portion that TV takes in our life is also decreasing because of excessive use of internet and widespread TV’s alternatives like PMP (Portable Multimedia Player), DMB (Digital Media Broadcasting). However, car business is still firmly secured. Alternatives of car like private aircraft, motorbike or just bicycle are too much different means of transportation from what people used to. Car is relatively very safe from those substitutes.

20501005 - Entry 10

2008-05-16T04:15:00.000-07:00

LG ties up with Benz for marketing

LG Electronics Inc. has partnered with German carmaker Mercedes-Benz and plans to hold joint marketing events in China and other Asian countries, the Korean company said yesterday."The joint marketing with Benz is part of LG`s efforts to target the premium market in Asia," said Nam K. Yoo, head of LG Electronics China. Benz`s luxury automobile brand, which combines advanced technology and classic designs, suits LG`s Art home appliance series well, he said.LG`s refrigerators, air conditioners, washing machines and other home appliances will be displayed in Mercedes-Benz showrooms in 14 major cities in China. Buyers of the latest models of Benz cars until June 21 will be given a free LG refrigerator.The Korean firm said it will expand the joint marketing campaign to Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand and the rest of Asia.In a similar joint marketing campaign, Samsung Electronics Co.`s SCH-W350 cell phone will be included in the BMW 3 series basic package, Samsung said.

My Opinion

Both LG and Mercedes-Benz are my favorite companies. As you probably know, Mercedes-Benz is one of the best car companies in the world. I think LG made a great decision that LG has partnered with Benz. It will also benefit for Benz to joint Asia marketing campaign with LG which is a famous company in Asia.

According to the article, LG`s refrigerators, air conditioners, washing machines and other home appliances will be displayed in Mercedes-Benz showrooms in 14 major cities in China.

Although, China is not a rich countury, there are a lot of rich people in major cities.

They might like Benz which is luxurious car brand. Because of the high level of awareness of Benz, those people will be considered LG as luxurious brand.

It seems that Both LG and Benz made a great decision.

Annotation : The Korea Herald / Lee Sun-young(milaya@heraldm.com) / May 16

Entry-10 20820014

2008-05-16T02:05:00.000-07:00

New Sites Make Shopping a Game
Are you willing to give up the hands-on service of a bricks-and-mortar luxury retail store? limited-time-only access of Internet luxury shopping???

/ summary /

This article is about a number of members only websites have been launched to sell luxury goods at really high discounts by using marketing techniques. Here time plays very important role by providing limited time “ flash sales” offer a new element, turn online shopping into online gaming. Sales like, Kuwait diamonds! Available for 36 hours only, while supplies last!
And yet the sites are pitched as members-only exclusive, and the inspirational products, such as Nina Ricci sunglasses, are aimed at all demographics. The idea is pure wish fulfillment: The purchase buttons to buy goods on Ideeli.com read, "I WANT IT!"
Moreover, Ideeli.com provides special opportunity through the access of its “ private sale game”. Sellers give original handbags sweepstakes-style and sells premium access to "First Row" members who pay $100 a year to get early access to sales via their cell phones.
As well as the brands themselves benefit from the discretion of a private sale. The goods are largely items from the end of the current spring season that companies need to get rid of as they prepare to ship their fall collections. For this reason, Gilt, which has a partnership with the industry's Council of Fashion Designers of America, carefully keeps its goods from showing up high on Google searches. The sites are exposed videos, celebrity images, and links to brands` home sites.
My opinion
I have gained lot of ideas about online promotion and marketing strategy for attracting potential consumers by offering inspirational and appealing words or tactics. Beside this great discounts, there`s a nice opportunity to sell unsold products or inventory.
Actually, luxury brands largely missed the Internet revolution. But recent studies suggest that the wealthy are shopping online these days. A survey by American Express Publishing and Harrison Group found that 99% of wealthy consumers shop online, expecting goods to be discounted at least 30% from store prices.
In the marketing attracting consumers by visual images like show celebrity with that brand apparel or some deceptive words like “ I want it” are very effective.
reference: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120960195112257963.html?mod=SmallBusinessBuildingAwareness_RelatedStories
may 16, by CHRISTINA BINKLEY

20820007 Entry - 10

2008-05-16T01:08:00.000-07:00

Build the Brand Friendship

To create a truly powerful brand, you need to establish a sense of belonging, friendship, and dependability between product and customers.

By Steve McKee

/Summary/
We are living in society and influencing each other. We continuously evolving stable of relationships and some of them last forever. This human dynamic is root of brand loyalty. Our relationship with brands also shares some same characteristics as our relationships with others. To have powerful brand assets we need to create a sense of belongings, friendship and dependability between our brand and customers.
Belongings
We are all members of different clubs. Our family, church, work place is all chosen clubs by ourselves. We always belong to something. Auto brands like BMW, Volkswagen and Saturn generate a strong sense of belongings around their brand. They could attract their loyalists by their unique culture and world class standard. Bloomberg does too. It means something to people who are working in the financial- service industry to be part of the Bloomberg Club. So most important factor in branding is relevance.
Friendship
Kerry Livgren said simply “The only way to be friend is to be one”. The great brands understand this. For example for many people Starbucks is like visiting an old friend every day. It is comfortable and familiar. Our chosen brand consistently gives us sense of trust that we are not trying to find another one. We can not force friendship but we can take steps to initiate friendship and show that we are doing our part.
Dependability
Friendships have ups and downs but true friend is someone we can count on. Brand is the same they prove themselves over time and takes time just as our relationships. For dependability know companies like American Express, Honda, and Toyota…
Awareness
If we do not continue to communicate with our new friends they will forget you. It is also same in branding. We should focus on what is our brand to whom it is meaningful then give our consistent attention in order to stay in customer’s top of mind. Think about Apple and eBay, they understood what are belonging, relationship and dependability and they threat them accordingly.

My Opinion

When we think about any brand we think about high value and high standard which makes sense of belonging, friendship and dependability- primary things described in the article. We do not choose everyone to be our friends and with brand is same as well. If brand is not relevant, consumers will not consider about it. Any famous successful brands are creating high values like high quality, unique service and etc. to satisfy customer’s needs and proving that over again they are doing their part well and staying long in top of mind. So I understood that it is very important to be relevant in branding because if we make particular product and services that not makes any sense it will probably fail.

It is impossible to forget true friends.

Reference: www.businessweek.com

20400442-ENTRY 10

2008-05-15T20:04:00.000-07:00

Sniff the Breeze!!

Last wendesday, we had a special lecture about the critical importance of reading the current tendency of business and consumers' preferences. The lecture was very very helpful to have such perspectives that successful marketers are to be fluctuate and fast to look forward to changes.

The article collapses with the lecture. The journal is talking about that he world's most influential headhunters have a particularly acute sense for the business trends that may already be shifting the strategy and management demands for their myriad corporate clients. What follows are just some of the perspectives they've shared about the single global business trend that will most influence corporate performance in the future.

Industry leaders will need to embrace the moral and economic principles of sustainable business to remain competitive and build successful companies, experts say. And the sustainable business and competitiveness are the ability to insight into emerging business trends.

Opinion

Coca-cola was pushed away from the first place of best recognition by the world. Now, the first place is taken by the Google. IBM is no longer the world's best computer maker. Daum, Korean portal site was pushed far down by the Cyworld and Naver. These are all because previous leader companies didn't read the trend and went too long with their current marketing mix.
I think how to perform is very important, as we study in the class. However, deciding what to perform to deliver the value to the customers from the beginning is also very critical.

Reference:
Scouting Emerging Business Trends; Besiness Week, by Joseph Daniel McCool, May 7, 2008

20820007 Entry-9

2008-05-11T05:37:00.000-07:00

Foreign Hotels Raise Bar in Japan

Customer service is a Japanese specialty, but when it comes to high-end hotels, it's the outsiders that earn most of the highest marks

by Ian Rowley

/Article summary/

Japan is famous about its beautiful temples, fantastic food and culture. Besides these things it attracts first time visitors by its unique services. It is not surprising 8 million visitors every year wondering about services in Japan when they go home and can not find same services in their own country. Whether it is convenience store, gas station, ticket collector they threat them like a king. Even when it comes to high class foreign managed hotel it is same as well and higher. Customer survey in January found that Ritz Carlton is most popular hotel in Tokyo and Osaka which owned by foreigners. Oriental is most expensive six star hotel which opened in 2005 with rooms starting at $780 per night. Other recent hotels are Conrad Tokyo with 314 rooms and Shangri – La in Tokyo.
It is noticeable that Ritz Carlton hotel located in the area of a huge shopping and art complex and Tokyo’s tallest building. Staffs are polite and attentive as you expect in Japan and trained to be more different than traditional Japanese hotels. Also it offers excellent food. Its Dutch general manger Ricco DeBlank always checks all details before the hotel starts because 70% of Japanese customers appreciate small details and send dozens of letters even some of them 14 pages long with photos.

As competition is rising newcomers have to work harder to please customers because some initial new openings die down. At the Peninsula visitors appreciate the new technology the hotel has added to its rooms: including humidifier installed in the air conditioning system, portable phone and nail- polish dryer. Despite new rivals local hotels don’t appear suffered. Imperial Hotel, Hotel Okura and the New Otani Hotel have seen increase of room rates.

Foreigner owned hotels creating a lot of media attention because they focus on small group of wealthy clients but some of them consider wide range of customers. Those hotels have 800 to 1500 rooms each for conference guests or large weddings. At the Imperial guests can choose from 7 types of pillows and air purifiers will be offered which churning out negative ions.

Opinion

From this article I understood why those foreign managed and owned companies are successful and earning more. In my opinion the reason is they rightly captured motives that are making target to choose services they offer. Their main target is not wide range of people but little group of wealthy people who always want to experience, taste and see different things so those hotels differentiated their services from traditional Japanese hotels by using advanced technology, offering unique food, training educating their employees and choosing most suitable locations in the shopping and art complex area which gives opportunity to customers approach places easily and save time. Therefore they understood customer’s attitude. If see statistics 70% of Japanese customers take note of everything even details so hotels are considering also every details of their services before everyday to open. It is becoming more competitive to please customers to new comers in hotel industry and to attract loyal customers of those hotels.

Customers are kings.

Reference:

http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/apr2008/gb20080418_590120.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_global+business

20820014 Entry-9

2008-05-10T23:30:00.000-07:00

Product Shift Keeps Mortgage Firm Afloat
At the start of last year, LoanWell Financial Corp. faced two big problems. The company was nearly out of cash. And it sold mortgages -- not exactly the type of business banks were enthused about lending to.
/summary/
The situation: LoanWell Financial had eaten through $1 million in seed money. And the mortgage company couldn't get a bank loan -- especially since it's based in a part of Florida where the housing-market meltdown was hitting hard. Therefore no bank wants to borrow money for firm.
The Fix: Instead of continuing its marketing traditional mortgage , the firm decided to shift to a product line completely with more growth potential -- reverse mortgages ,which is available generally to people age 62 or older. Reverse mortgage allows older people to use the equity in their homes to receive monthly payments from a bank. CEO Michael Banner thought his company could take advantage of their well position in Florida because here retirement-aged population rise and a prime in Florida as a growing potential market..
First, they needed more cash. Since any bank didn’t give loan they seek investors finally, could find partnerships. The partners set a plan together with demographic data and statistics showing why reverse mortgages were poised to grow in Florida. And LoanWell created a convertible note that pays investors regular interest for now and converts to equity when company hits a certain profitability level.
Next they needed customers who own their homes and need cash. Reverse mortgage has a mixed reputation, with the perception that fees are high and residents could lose their homes.
The company created and mailed out brochures and advertisements, spending about $15,000 each month buying names and addresses from marketing companies. It also designed seminars for seniors, paying about $8,000 per month for mailings, room rentals and food.
Mr. Banner cultivated relationships with financial planners and insurance brokers with a mostly older clientele -- such as long-term care insurers.
LoanWell also uses its small size as a selling point, paying the personal attention clients would get -- something older people appreciate. The company is expanding in New Jersey and is applying for licenses in five other states.
The Risks: Changing a core business means having to market to a whole new customers. And it could dilute the company's established brand.
My opinion
A drastic change when company getting close to bankrupt could survive company. As i studied in class one of the growth strategies is diversification. For this company they used unrelated diversification, the new business lacks any common elements with the previous business. The things that i studied from this article:
Marketers must can find advantage of the situation even the company gets in trouble. Mr.Banner could see its advantage of well position for growing market- senior citizens.
Shifting to new market is easier for smaller firms, which are generally more nimble and have fewer bureaucratic and management hurdles. Also, employees at smaller companies adapt to change more easily than larger ones. Morever, they could make a proper business contract with partners as pay regular interest now and then share equity by explaining real situation. Still, shifting to the new product line is not easy, it may causes alienate its loyal customers and dilute brand.
Annotation:Product Shift Keeps Mortgage Firm Afloat by Simona Covel, may 11,
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120959122980357471.html?mod=SmallBusinessSmallBusinessLink_feature_articles

20400442-Entry 9

2008-05-10T18:55:00.000-07:00

Research efforts go more commercially relevant!

Banerjee, HP's new lab director is overhauling HP's research slate. The labs' $150 million annual budget will remain the same, but he'll group the most promising related projects while dropping those with little shot at a profitable payoff. "Just because it's scientifically interesting won't do it," Banerjee says. "We need to create whole new business opportunities for HP."

This statement made by the director is well explained with how investment on HP's research is made unveiled. In the past, HP Labs relied too much on personal relationships among its 600 scientists when giving projects a go-ahead, says Banerjee. Researchers were subject to few formal milestone reviews. Projects often dragged on, making it tough to staff new ones. "Things were a bit territorial," says Jaap Suermondt, who heads an HP data analysis lab. And coordinating scientists' work with headquarters could be a struggle. "Convincing the business units took almost as much energy as the idea itself," says Ajay Gupta, director of HP's India lab.

Opinion.

In the class, we learned about problem solving; how we should first determind what the problem is, and to set conditions to effectively solve the problem.
Well, reading the article how HP has been spending anormous amount of money on research, ("relied too much on personal relationships among its 600 scientists when giving projects a go-ahead") I could assumed that amensive amount of money might have been spent on ineconomic scale, or un-business related activities; not so wasteful of resources in scienticif view, but certainly a waste in "Profit-focused" perspective.

Annotation: Aaron Ricadela , HP Labs' Latest Experiment: Itself, Business Week, May 1. Reference

20501034 - entry 9

2008-05-09T08:58:00.000-07:00

'Why Samsung and LG Scare Motorola'
by Moon, BusinessWeek's Seoul bureau chief.
BusinessWeek(http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/apr2008/gb20080430_178487_page_2.htm) 2008. 5. 1

Summary

Last year, Samsung Electronics passed Motolola to become the world's No. 2 player in the cell phone industry. Now Motorola is in real danger of being overtaken" by LG Electronics. Samsung and LG are accounts for 44% of cell phone sales.

One of the reasons that Samsung and LG is dominating the markting is the Korean’s capability to bring out bunch of stylish products incorporating new technologies. As an example, Samsung brought 30 new multimedia models in the 2nd quarter of this year.

Another reason Samsung and LG being so successful is iPhone. Samsung and LG’s star product, touch screen interface and multimedia device, was basically shown in the iPhone. While iPhone took 0.6~0.7% share of market due to expensive price, Samsung and LG imitated very fast and manufactured touch screen interface phone with cheap price.

My opinion

First of all, I have to say Samsung and LG read latest trend well. In the book, ‘Microtrend’, the author Pinn pointed that in our age, there are many different kinds of demands which should be satisfied. Just 10 years ago, we are very used to hear mega bit hit product. Whole people in nation were excited in just one product. (ex. Ice cream, bag, song and etc) In that age, people have similar tastes and they faithfully followed the what others do or buy. However, in out age, everybody wants to be treated differently. They even hate to wear same cloth with other people. They want to be distinguished from anonymous people. So I can say what they value is more like individual characteristic now.
In this sense, Samsung seemed to find various kinds of customer’s needs. According to customer’s needs, Samsung made 30 different kinds of cell phone and satisfy each demographics.

I think what Samsung and LG did better than others is they radically reduced the time which is consumed to absorb newest technologies from pioneer company, Apple. Apple suggested touch screen style cell phone with iPhone. Samsung and LG realized that it would be the next trend of cell phone. They moved very fast quickly adopted it. In this way, Samsung and LG could minimized the R&D cost in comparison with Apple and even beat the Apple. It will be key factor how Samsung and LG keep reducing the time to absorb new technology from competitors and have their own competitive edge which is hard to get by other companies.

20500356 entry9

2008-05-09T08:16:00.001-07:00

Dell spreads out its selling channel

By Byung-jun Kang
델, 新유통 모델 "아직은 현재진행형
Electronic news, (http://www.etnews.co.kr/news/detail.html?id=200804160065)
2008/04/17

Dell computer is known as the successful model of computer-product market by its innovative selling strategy. Michel Dell, the founder of the company, started the company without strong capital asset, but by the strategy He did success.

The core of this success is their direct selling strategy. That is, not buyer’s contact to the market or store, but the seller’s visit to the buyer directly, which did a great work for Dell. The result was not only for customers – comfort, low price, match to their needs, but also for dell itself; they reduced the cost revolutionary, controlled the inventory successfully. They grew to the major computer-product company in the market. In addition, with the growth of internet, their direct-selling model became huge; the selling amount at their website is as twice as the whole computer market size in Korea.

But now, Dell has been taking a change of their direct selling model. According to the article, dell has started to diversify their distribution channel. They entered the retailing store like Hi-Mart and took an agreement with distributers

I guess that it is because of the reduction at the sale, profit, and market share. Dell has been taken over their 1st degree of PC sales; their brand of notebook is still week. Michal dell, who has just came back to the CEO, performs that with the cut of the 8000 of labors.

The superficial result is shown as the growth of sales, but, the article says that it is not yet success. Their brand is no more perception and trust than that of Samsung or HP. The result will be figured by the effect of enlarged channel.

Overall Opinion
There was a concept about direct selling and indirect selling in the last class. Dell, the manufacturer of its computer product wanted to be direct seller. It’s because they wanted to demonstrate their goods, and the margin is high when they role as wholesalers and retailers also. But they changed their strategy for use of the strong retailing channel, and for establishing their brand image strongly into the channel. I’ve found that the importance of determining the selling-strategy for maximize the profit.

20500356-entry8

2008-05-09T08:12:00.000-07:00

The importance of customers

by Lee Hyunggyu
Company 고객아이디어로 대박 터뜨린 기업들
Economic Review(http://news.naver.com/main/read.nhnmode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=101&oid=093&aid=0000005291)
07-06-28

Marketing is the study which deals with the ‘value’. That is, marketing is to creat the value(product), evaluate it(price), and deliver it(place) to customers(promotion). Normally, the ‘value’ is produced by companies and consumers are just delivered the value. However, there is companies who enparticipate the customers to the process of creating the value, and had a great effect.

Summary

LG electrics called for the ‘cyon prosumers’ by internet and gathered the idea needed for the development of cell phone. The company applied their ideas and produced the Chocolate phone, which was sold over 10 million. In the next project Shine phone, they called the prosumers again, and succeeded again.

Mando map&soft, the navigation tool company of korea, has opened the website of their product, Mappee, and has applied the customers’ opinion to the product. It reduced the R&D cost about half times, and at the same time, it lead the promotion effect. Consequently, the company has been growing over twice at each year.

“it can reduce the development cost and risk, to apply the consumer’s opinion actively to the development and produce; it also makes consumers active to the promotion of the product, so companies can take two merits both by development and by marketing

Opinion

The examples show the importance of finding the customer’s needs. The core of marketing is to give what customers want. Applying the opinion of customers has more power of evoking Action than putting ads to make them have Attention, Interesting, and Desire. I’ve learned that to fulfill the needs of the customers is more important than just making high-quality goods, in persuasive the customers to open their wallet.

20500356-entry 7

2008-05-09T07:53:00.000-07:00

Korea: as a brand

by Shin Chiyoung, Park Yong,
[대한민국 2008 +10 & -10]<6·끝>국가 브랜드가치 높이기

Dong-a Ilbo(http://www.donga.com/fbin/output?n=200801110070)

08.1.11

Summary

The article emphasizes the influence of nation’s brand by the result of a research. In the research, the brand-power of korea is 14th of the world, one third of japan’s, and half of china’s. and the article refers a comment of Philip Kotler, “the image of the product be different by the image of the nation”, “so the marketing strategy should be considered by nationally.”

If the nation’s brand marketing give good influence to the company, then the company’s improved competitive power and image influences to the nations; it becomes good circulations. A good example is Nokia’s. now, Nokia has the 30percent of the whole export of Finland. it is true that the perception and image for Finland is influenced by Nokia.

Opinion

Professor said several times in the class; Korea needs something that can improve the brand Korea. Brand power need to be considered and developed by nations, as well as by companies. It gives good effect to both sides; nations can improve its economy by inviting the foreign capital and investment by its nation-brand-power, companies can make its brand-power stronger by the nation-brand, like Japan. In the class, I was seriously thinking about the national brand of Korea doing the project of Hanbok. Now I found that the image of nation directly have impact to the competitive power of companies.

20501005 - Entry 9

2008-05-09T02:08:00.000-07:00

LG beefs up design investment
By Ko Kyoung-tae (kkt@heraldm.com) - The Korea Herald

Summary
LG Group said yesterday it will invest 100 billion won ($100 million) in the product design this year, up 14 percent from a year ago. The Seoul-based conglomerate said it also plans to hire about 60 designers to expand the number of design staff to 700 this year. LG's affiliates have long been producing reliable mass-market electronics and consumer products, which have helped the firm establish a global sales network in a short period of time. The group now looks to set consumer trends by more aggressively marketing innovative products. Koo stressed that the affiliates can secure a larger customer base by offering more creative and differentiated designs. "Design will be the biggest competitive edge to spearhead the transition in the future. We should create innovative designs to tap latent consumer demand and guide their lifestyles," he said during a meeting with group executives last year. The company also diversified the design tasks into its overseas design staff, aiming to better meet local demands in the global market. LG Group won a total of 80 design awards at home and abroad last year alone.

My Opinion

I agree with Koo's idea, the CEO of LG Corp,. As Prof. Lee always stresses in the class, design is very important part of promotion. We have designed several stuffs throughout this semester. When I design something, I can feel that I am living. It gives me lots of pleasure.

For few weeks, I have prepared for the LG global challenger competition. While I was preparing the competition, I focused on not only contents but also design. So we used Adobe Illustration for designing the report. I learned how to use Illustration from one of my team member. It was great opportuny to learn that kind of fancy tool! Anyway, thesedays the importance of design is increasing! There are many products which were successful because of beautiful design such as LG CYON Chocolete phone , etc. As a savvy marketer! we should realize the importance of design when we market something.

20400442-Entry 8

2008-05-05T05:53:00.000-07:00

Nokia-Users' Driven Tech

Nokia researchers didn't quite know what to expect when, in March, 2007, they posted a mobile phone application called Sports Tracker on a company Web site that is open to the public. The program, still a work in progress, was designed to let runners and cyclists take advantage of the global positioning capability included in some Nokia models. Users can record workout data such as speed and distance, and can plot routes.

You've heard of user-generated content? Sports Tracker is an example of how Nokia has begun experimenting with user-generated innovation. That's the premise behind Nokia Beta Labs, a Web site where the Finnish handset maker lets users test the latest smartphone software. Instead of people recording silly Web cam videos for YouTube or inventing frivolous advocacy groups on Facebook, they can help make the mobile Internet more useful.

The researchers said, "Our fear was people would come up with ideas that already existed, like a phone with a camera. But people's suggestions were much more creative."

Opinion

We learned about how important it is to build a relationship and relevence with customers for a business. Nokia is now running the website(Nokia Beta Labs) and a field research to suit personal needs and wants that eventually will build the value to the products. To balance to satisfy niche markets and mass population is left as the homework for Nokia. However, considering negligible cost of such marketing and the huge effect that it will bring, Nokia is bringing an exemplary marketing strategy to the customers and business.

Reference. How Nokia Users Drive Innovation

20820014 Entry-8

2008-05-02T02:15:00.000-07:00

Better online search gets Papa John`s a bigger slice.

A fresh search approach boosts online pizza orders 61%.
/summary/

This article is about how Papa John`s, the first pizza chain company to offer national online ordering, remain the leader of pizza pack by refreshing their online search campaign. They knew that to keep staying in the first position, they’d have to stay top-of-mind with consumers – and that means staying on top of search results. In order to achieve their goal they have collaborated with Advertising.com implemented “OutSearch” solutions.
Search is one of the best, most cost-effective ways for Papa John’s to ensure hungry consumers find them first. But in early 2006, they realized their search vendor was not managing their search campaign to its full potential – new terms were not being added and term performance was not being effectively tracked. Always looking to grow and improve, Papa John’s developed and implemented a search strategy that included continual keyword evaluation and development, constant data analysis, and ongoing bid adjustments to reflect keyword performance – i.e., resulting online orders. This dynamic strategy means that Papa John’s would no longer be paying top-dollar for non-performing terms and could quickly add new terms.
First, search team focused on managing keyword bids in relation to individual keyword performance. After reviewing Papa John’s keyword portfolio, the team developed additional keywords and fresh creatives to capture opportunities that had been overlooked. As the campaign launched, the team was able to continually evaluate the performance of every term and adjust bids accordingly – removing keywords that weren’t generating sales and focusing bid dollars on the best performers.
As a result, their campaign efforts immediately improved Papa John’s search performance and ROI. In fact, from March to May, they decreased the number of search impressions by 38% while increasing the number of online orders by 61%. In those three months alone, the new search marketing strategy generated millions in online sales their previous vendor had been letting fall through the cracks.

My opinion
As, a new form of marketing communication, internet allows marketers not only build awareness of their product but also persuades and forces target consumers to make action or order products and service through well designed blogs. For company, to determine which media best reach target consumers and how much it will cost is a vital. In the case study of Papa John`s , as a online ordering company, marketing team has revealed their disadvantage successfully while set most proper key words to differ from competitors through collaboration with professional advertising network “advertising.com"
Furthermore, character of the blog must be create customer value (product excellence, operational excellence, customer excellence) even though it`s appear on the first line of search. Whereas poor blogs could lead to backlash, damage customer relationship decrease customer trust, consumer loyalty and even profit.
Reference:
http://www.advertising.com/

20501034 - Entry 8

2008-05-02T01:26:00.000-07:00

Sudoku – Otaku marketing

Original Article

Once I was interested in Sudoku. I remember that I was quiet surprised that Sudoku is basically invented by Swiss mathematician and it was firstly published in American magazine. Who can imagine the name “Sudoku” is not a Japanese one. I was very interested in this and I found more information about how Japanese develop this mathematical game and take it as their own style.

This Sudoku game is started from small publish company in Tokyo. What the owner of the public company knew was the power of ‘Otaku’. So you know, ‘Otaku’ is group of people who crazy about something. They could be enthusiastic video game, idol group, camera etc. But the perception I have about Otaku is that they aggressively carry their point and eager to demonstrate their interest on the goods. This makes people overestimate the perceived awareness and demand of the goods. Finally, it forms “Network Effect (Harvey Leibenstein)”.

Besides, Otaku even participates in product developing process. So public company owner could facilitate Otaku’s creative and aggressive manpower for free. A month, thousands of Sudoku quizzes which created by Otaku are being sent to the companies and piled up. The owner hired some of best Sudoku quiz creators to work for his companies paying relative low salary in comparison with their passion and effort to create Sudoku. Now public company is making a millions if US dollar a year.

I learned that the business is becoming mutual relationship with customers. From now on, not only producing interesting goods, but also forming a great relationship with customers would be significantly important.

20501005 - Entry 8

2008-05-01T23:21:00.000-07:00

Open Blue-sumers' Wallet!!!

: Blue-sumers = Blue-ocean + Consumers

original article (click)

My Opinion

Have you heard about 'Blue-sumers'?Well, it was last week I happened to know this word.This article is about 'Blue-sumers'Before I start, I am going to explain what 'Blue-sumers' means.I couldn't find which countury started using this word.I guess may be Korean started using it.Anyway, this is a mixture of BlueOcean and Consumers.This word indicates some kinds of niche market which we need to consider as Blueocean.According to this article, there seven classification of BlueSumers.
1. Gold Kids: Because today we have only one son and daughter, the industry related to those children will prosper.
2. Almost Rich: For people in their twenties and thirties who are eager to buy some luxurious products.
3. Passionate Senior: For elderly people who have enough money to enjoy the rest of their lives.
4. Married Romance: Services for married couple
5. At Home Dad: The number of men who work at home instead of wives is getting increased.
6. Family-like Care: Pats or helpers for seniors.
7. Scared Children: Especially against the sexual abusing

In addition to these seven categories, I would like to add one more thing.

That is "Heavy Korean : today many Koreans are concerned so much about their health and weight." The reason I talked about the concept 'BlueSumers' is because as a marketer when we do marketing, we need to see the niche market and take that as advantage.

I'm sure that this information will help you be a successful marketer and businessman.

"Think about What other people can think! See what other people can see!"

This is what I want to tell you today.

20820007 Entry - 8

2008-05-01T22:55:00.000-07:00

Effects of Colors in Business

Choose carefully benefit more…

In our lectures sometimes professor talks about how colors influence customers mind and how it makes people to respond positively. I found one very informative article about this topic. As marketing managers one of the first decisions they make is how to use different colors effectively in their logo, advertisements, packaging, etc. Most people don’t know about effects of colors as physiological power. However, researchers have done many researches and determined impacts of different colors in human mind.

Some colors make us to purchase particular product or use them to decorate our homes and some of them have a negative impact on our minds. For example yellow does not used in high value product packaging because it reduces plain value of it. Also it considered as meaning “temporary” that’s why it used in taxicabs. Besides yellow not advisable for bank logos and marketing materials because they don’t want that customers feel temporary with their institution.

Red always attracts attention, stimulates buying action and used in many restaurants as decoration color but blue is not used in restaurants because it depresses appetite and make people feel nervous and cold.

White is mostly used in hospitals in order to give confidence to patients and represents everything good and pure. Pink calms people. Green is used to represent high quality but not recommended for packaging in China or France. Bright colors attract children which are primary colors with them. Teenagers respond well to shocking colors which represents their preference for something. Soft colors preferred by adults. People how are high educated with higher income more sensitive in choosing colors.

My opinion
In business it can be critical choosing proper colors in logos and packaging because every one have their own tastes and point of view. To prevent and in order to attract our main target it is very important to research about needs and responses of average target have. Also it’s seems like very little thing proper use of colors but in reality little things can cause future danger. If company made a high value product and they used not proper color for their packaging they are failing. Additionally it is important to know people’s physiology in different countries. For example it is not adequate to choose blue as package color in China because it represents immorality. But in Mongolia it symbolizes blue sky which they respond with respect to it. Whether in business or in small part of our life colors play considerable role.

Every color has a meaning

20400442-Entry 7

2008-04-27T23:32:00.000-07:00

What makes Thailand so attractive!

For this week's business blog entry, I would like to share some of my experience of living in Thailand in the busines point to view; looking for what makes Thailand so attractive that the immensive number of foreigners move there.

First of all, Thailand is a tropical country, which makes it attractive for the retired people around the world who have plenty of money, time, and desire to explore something new around the world; baby boomers for instance. When I was in Thailand for my junior-high, the weather became so hot during the months of hot summer, that it was hard to walk around the city or exercise outdoor. However, in a suffocating hot weather, it is hard to find any indoor places that doesn't have air conditioners. Thailand has developed so fast and so much recently, it is not a country where people ride elephants to work.

Naturally, our discussion leads to the second factor that makes Thailand laudable place to live; High-tech city, Bangkok. Bangkok has placed itself into one of the world's biggest tourist city. Even the traffic in Bangkok often is very bad, new mono-railed train around the city in 2 minute-gap gave the city exemplary transportation system. One can also find a pleasure by looking at huge malls in the city. They are structured in a way to show off their technology to please visitors. Their sizes also are just "awe-full".

Thirdly, because of fast development of the country, they were able to both concentrate the city-centered development and to preserve their culture and historical scences.

King's Palace and Ayuthhaya are just two of worldly famouse historical cites.

Traditional markets that open along the river is also quite a thing to take a look at!

Lastly, but one of most crucial factor is international education system in Bangkok. One might find it hard to believe that Bangkok, one of the third world country has one of estimable international education system. Well established international schools draw foreign teachers to the country, and give a superior alternative for those who are hesitating to move to Thailand but worring about their children's education. Because of relatively cheap price in Thailand, luxurious facilities of private international school is not only affordable, but very tempting.

Overall cheap price, high-tech, and their serving culture based on Buddhism and divine right of kings are just few more factors that makes Thailand different than any other places.

20501034 - Entry 7

2008-04-25T08:02:00.000-07:00

'Again' Lotte

Article

Since 2000, The Baseball team, Lotte Giants which based on Busan has been seen at the bottom of the ranking list. Of course, the popularity of the Lotte got desperate. As a matter of fact, the Lotte baseball team was so popular back in the days and they even won the Korean series in 1984 and 1992. As popularity went down, the number of people who visit Lotte baseball stadium also rapidly decreased. In the weekends, many people visited Lotte baseball stadium to see their playing. The problem is that the stadium became almost all the time empty in the week day.

In this situation, the marketing department of Lotte came up with very creative idea. They named it “Again”. In the week day, they create Lotte stadium as it is 1984 and 1992. They played old song which played in their age and even charge the entrance fee as much as 1984. As a result of this, they sold 16,000 tickets out in 2 days earlier than the day actual game began.

My opinion

In my perception, Busan is the second largest and very successful harbor city. In the 1980’s and 1990’s, as a center of logistics and trading, Pusan attained the highest stage of prosperity. However, since 2000, economically and culturally Busan has been falling behind in comparison with Seoul. Their baseball team was also very strong in 1980’s and 1990’s but in 2000’s they are always at the bottom of the ranking list. Pusan people might be missing their glorious age and Lotte marketing team found this needs (to want to see or repeat their glorious age) and applied this fact in a very successful way. I especially like the fact that they applied this idea to fill the empty seats.

In service industry, it is very important to maximize the facilities or given resources. Family restaurants give a discount to customers who come to have a lunch to fill the empty. Disney sells annual ticket which is only available for week day in very cheap price to utilize the facility during week days. However, in sports marketing business, they almost gave up to offer empty seat during week day concerning hardworking Korean people. They rather squeeze the profit only during the weekends than make good use of their resources in the other 5 days. In this sense, Lotte’s marketing team approached in very practical way which never happened before in sports marketing. I hope it would inspire the other marketing area which is inefficient to innovate their business more efficiently.

20501005 - Entry 7

2008-04-25T04:05:00.000-07:00

Nike, environmentally friendly marketing
@Beijing Olympic.

Original Article

My Opinion
The slogan of Beijing Olympic is "faster, higher, further." beyond these words. A global sports brand Nike adds one word 'more environmentally friendly' in order to upgrade the brand image.
As you know, China is infamous for "Air Pollution" and many types of pollution. So, several counturies including France boycotted the Olympic. Now, it is very controversial problem.
I think although China is rapidly developing country, they need to consider their environment.
Like Korea did in last decades, they are ignoring the importance of environment.
Anyway, it is good news that many componies such as Nike and Adidas try to use environmental marketing. This article is about the news that last week Nike has shown its new products developed to be good for environment and athletes. The name of product is "Swift" which is made up of polyester from abandoned uniforms and Coke PET etc. "Swift" also helps athletes to make a better record. I think Nike made a great decision. These days, one of the most important issues is 'environment' and Nike caught that! Marketing environmentally. We should consider environment even when we do marketing!! This is a trand we should catch up with.
Be a friend with Environment!!!!

20820014 Entry- 7

2008-04-25T01:39:00.000-07:00

U.S. Health Care Spending to Double by 2017, Report Predicts

Spending could hit $4.3 trillion, account for one-fifth of gross domestic product

According to the report of HealthDay news, American`s spending on health care could double by 2017, reach $4.3 trillion and accounting for 19.5% of the nation`s gross domestic product. The main reason causes this big growth is baby boomers begin to enter the medicare system, there will be major shift in health care spending from the private to the public sector.
Health spending is expected to increasing steady within near 10 years, which is 2007 through 2017, at 6.7% per year. At the same time economic growth is expected to slow to an average annual rate of 4.7%. As a result, the combination of steady health spending growth and slowing economic growth will lead to the health care part of gross domestic product rising to nearly 20% 2017, nearly one-fifth of the economy. Due to medicare baby boomers, public spending growth is increasing whereas private spending growth is decreasind.

My opinion
Every year thousands of people require treatment for dreaded deseases like cancer, heart desease, kidney, liver desease etc. People spend a lot of money for their health. This article prove that large amount of money is flowing to medical business.
However, as I read from chapter16, drugstore retailers face big challenge due to low price negotiation with health insurance companies. Therefore they are attempting to make up lost profits by selling nonpharmaceutical products. In mongolian case there are various asian drugstore chains like Tianshi, Dabao, Beichishin, even american Nutrition B12 etc. Nowadays people are seeking low price and high quality medical treatment in Asian countries. It provide for marketers nice opportunity to make medical tourism for medical tourists specially for westerners. According to my research after professor Lee showed video on class, asian world standard treatment costs only 10-20% which is in USA or UK. The most popular destinations are India, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand. Medical tourism is rapidly growing with large numbers of tourists in these countries by 20-30% each year. Currently, number of estimated tourists to be 1.3 millions and asia expected to be earn it U.S.$ 4.4 billion by 2012.

References:

http://www.businessweek.com/

http://www.nchc.org/

http://www.healthtourisminasia.com/

20820007, Entry - 7

2008-04-25T00:33:00.000-07:00

High quality, affordable, overseas medical care

/When you're out of quality you're out of business./

In the last class we watched videos about unusually and affordable hospitals in Thailand. It was very interesting for me so I made a research about one of them in order to know how they attract their patients and how they keeping and adding the number of visitors. I found that biggest and high qualified hospital in Thailand is Bumrungrad which founded in 1980. Now hospital offers state-of-art diagnostic, therapeutic and intensive care facilities in a one- stop medical care. Every year hospital serves one million patients all over the globe including clients who live in Thailand. About 400000 of them are international patients from 190 countries. Bumrungrad’s goal is to provide world class medicine and service so patients served by highly educated and professional 945 doctors and 700 nurses. They also offer services like: International Medical Coordination Office, Languages, Airport service and Travel and Visa services for visitors from overseas.

My opinion

According to the number of visitors and offered services I made an inference that they really understood what the people’s need is and what they can do to satisfy these needs. Hospital business is business where you should not make mistakes because target always asks about high quality, safety and affordable price. Bumrungrad fulfilled all of these 3 main categories and plus they offering special services for international patients that they can’t experience in their own countries. Also it offers an opportunity for visitors to get all things they need in one place while you are staying in the hospital for treatments. Things you should not worry about: inpatient accommodation, hospitality residence, food and beverage services, shopping, international patient center and transportation because you can find them in the hospital easily. For example these are the shops available for visitor’s convenience: 99 Minimart(convenience store), AM hair salon, Get the book, Healthy Max(medicine store), Better life and Baby shop( big wallet share in the market). Therefore I want to mention the interior design of the hospital .It designed to be similar to any luxury hotels interior style and it is very unusual compare to other boring common hospitals which are operating in the same field. Also rooms are designed to make people to feel warm hospitality of Thai country. Additionally about price it is very affordable, compare to states it is less by10% so buy the rest of the money visitors can travel and experience hospitality, culture and unique food of Thailand.

High quality always gives people confidence about safety.

20500356 entry-6

2008-04-18T10:09:00.000-07:00

How could euro-Disney overcame its crisis?

In last class, we talked about the failure of Euro-Disney by case-study. Euro-disney adjusted their success model excessively to Europe, but because it didn’t work, they failed. Their financial position is still not good; even Saudi-Arabic prince fancied himself to pay their debt. However, it is still being operated. This year they would open 15th anniversary festival. What have made Euro-disney survived? We can know it by looking their marketing-innovations.

First, they discounted their admin fee over 20 percent, and also did hotel fee as one-third. In the beginning, their admin-fee-policy was simply same to one of US, but the reason of recession of Europe, that was too expensive to Europeans. In that meaning, their discounting was not just bargain-sale, but it was one of localization.

They performed the localization policy indeed. They opened marketing institute all over Europe. The name of themselves was changed first- from euro-disney to Disney land paris. I think it was their attempt to remove their view to Europe market as just the one whole-market without any characteristic, and then renew it to maximize the figure of paris – it seems to be attempt to both localization and distinguish.

They also renewed the relationship between employees. The executer had breakfast with employees at 2 times per week. The excessive restriction to them made the public opinion opposite to euro-disney, and they recognized it.
As a result, euro-disney, no, the Disney land paris has shown the clear improvement of output. The number of visiter rose above 10 million again, and the hotel-guesting rate also rose, and the cost for each visitor was reduced. Even though their deep-seated financial problem still remains, but their success is meaningful because of the fact that they overcame their failure and changed to sustainable company.

My opinion

Disneyland succeeded in japan because their cultural brand was exotic enough and it met the need of market. Disney tended to adjust it to Europe as it is, but paris already had its original brand and it broke to disney’s brand. In contrast, they were squeezed by the brand power of paris and fail to perform their attempt. This failed strategy prevented Disney from success, and they are still not able to succeed.

However, they need to solve their problems in order ‘not to bankrupt’. Not strategic problem but their managing problem. They solved it successfully; now they can survive on the market.

The failure and its recovery have taught me about S and W in SWOT. Maximizing S determines their gross and minimizing W reduces their risk to failure. When I got into the executer of a company, I need to determine which side I focus on either strategy or operating, for growth or safe.

references

http://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=110&oid=015&aid=0000103274

http://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=110&oid=015&aid=0000101859

20501034 Entry 6

2008-04-18T07:34:00.000-07:00

Why did Euro Disney fail?
(Further analysis on what we dealed with in the class)

1) The reason why Disney pick the Europe

Tokyo Disneyland that opened the business in 1983 was the first big oversea project for Disney. Tokyo Disneyland became huge success and then naturally Disney pointed Europe for the next target. When Disney planned to launch Disney, it is regarded as jack pot as Tokyo Disney. The reason why people thought that Europe Disney would be so successful was that the brand, Disney was well known in whole European countries and European was spending quiet big percentage of their income for leisure. In addition to this, Europe didn’t have any amusement park that is as big as what Euro Disney would be.

2) Euro Disney’s Pre-marketing plan

Before they opened the Disney, they wanted to fulfill those purpose
-Inform that there will be new theme park in Europe
-Position Euro Disney as attractive company to work for
-Attract as many people as possible

To achieve those aim, Disney set several strategies that is mentioned above.

-To start the pre-marketing a year in advance to open the park
-To emphasize of Disney’s opening ceremony as a huge issue in Europe
-To broadcast the program that is called “Disney Club” for 30 minutes in 13 TV channels
-To cooperate with sponsors(Kodak, Nestle, CocaCola, Phillips, Esso, France Telecome, IBM, Renault, etc) and keep the good relationship with mass media.
-To do the “Target Market Castle Tour” that is 40 Disney staffs with 6 tents take a trip in 16 cities in German, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, UK and Italy and set the Disney miniature castles and promote it

3) The result

For the first year, 11 million people visited Disney which is way too many over the expectation. Even though lots of people came, they lost $ 320 million in 1994 and the number of visitors decreased 10% in comparison with 1993.

4) The mistakes Disney made

As professor said, the biggest mistakes Disney made was the fact that they tried to not only own and manage Euro Disneyland but also develop the huge land that is near Euro Disneyland. The reason why Disney is so obsessed with Euro Disneyland was that Disney barely made the money out of Tokyo because majority of Tokyo Disney was owned by Japanese investors. Therefore, Disney wanted to have substantial part of money that is generated by Euro Disney.

Another reason was recession in Europe. Europeans who used to spend big money for leisure are becoming stingy. Furthermore, Gulf war influenced on Tourism and Real estate in Europe.

The third reason is Disney set the marketing plan based on the idea that whole Europe is homogeneous. As a matter of fact, every European countries has their own culture code and Disney obviously ignored it.

The fourth reason is Asterix park in Paris. Asterix is French traditional character and the especially the French love it. I have no idea it is made to be against American capitalism. Anyway, Euro Disney got hurt a lot by Asterix park.

The last reason was miscalculation. Disney’s optimal price for entrance fee was proved way too expensive concerning European purchasing power. Disney miscalculated the money European would spend per visit and the number of day European would spend in Disneyland.

5) My Suggestion

Micro marketing: As Mark Pinn who is former Hilary’s campaign strategist and successful author of Micro Trend said the market could be divided as many demographics that have different tastes. Of course, Europe could be divided as many big and small consumer group. Disney should approach the European market concerning they have lots of different aspects and characteristics.

In addition to this, Disney needs to carefully calculate the estimation of optimal price and the number of visitors according to the season. Disney also should take a consideration about the risk and share the risk investing with others. It is good to have majority of profit by themselves but they have to consider the many external environment which sabotage their business.

20501005 - Entry 6

2008-04-18T05:49:00.000-07:00

Party Times: Marketing Through Events
Are foreign marketers missing the boat in China with trendy parties? Culture watchers say traditional values are still important

original article

My opinion

Today, I would like to talk about 'Localization' which we discussed about in last class. We did a research about the reason why Disney failed in Paris, and we found out some reasons.
Basically, it was about the culture. Disney failed to preposition the value and understand their culture. Like Disney case, this article tells us the importance of knowing culture in order to succeed in localization. Moreover, this article is about marketing through events such as parties.
I have seen that many luxury companies such as Prada, Luis Vuitton and Gucci hosted launching parties. In that parties, many influential and rich people are invited. These events can be the ways of marketing. In addition, this article talks about another fact, 'knowing culture'.
According to this article, learning from the past and taking traditional values into consideration when marketing a product is the first lesson. For example, communal and family values are much stronger among teenagers in China than in the West.
Another factor is decorum and it applies to all cultures with a Confucian element. In this way, I think Chinese culture is similar to Korean culture. To sum up, what this article tries to tell us is the important of knowing culture. Before we do marketing, we should know and understand how they(targets) think, live and act. So that we might succeed in localization.

20820014 - Entry 6

2008-04-17T23:59:00.000-07:00

Low Price- Short term success.
Consumers will always ask for lower prices, but they don't always want them. Price is an indicator of value.

/ summary of article/
Cutting prices might seem strategic way to boost company`s profit but it may causes short term success and decrease long term growth. Because price isn't merely a reflection of product quality, it's an indicator of it as well.
If there are two TVs sold in electronics store, both have similar features and design characteristics but completely different price. Many people would choose lower price option, but some would buy more expensive TV. So, what would happen one or two years later? Obviously, there is some certain differences in quality. It would have to justify price is an indicator of value. If something is more expensive, it's usually for good reason.
Furthermore, high prices may to lower sales volume in the short term, but they need to expand their distribution networks. Due to expensive goods and service, you might lose some price sensitive customers. It can be odd to feel good about losing customers because of price, but if you're not, you may be backing yourself into a low-margin corner. You should admit that you are not Wal-Mart, very few companies can sustain lower price positioning.
Therefore, search and find a way to test a higher price point. Sometimes consumers pay bit more for something it makes them to feel better about that brand.

My opinion
In my thinking we should consider “is the benefit of my product to provide customers equal to its price? Or are customers willing to pay for my product?” Obviously, if usual cup of tea costs 6$, nobody wants to buy it. But if it is sold in premium restaurant with luxurious environment and excellent service as well as with fancy cup and spoon, probably some people willing to buy it.
Moreover, what about if i already sold my product in low price? Or i am in a competitive situation? What should i do? In this situation i will try to built or strengthen my competitive advantage.
Finally, i understood many beneficial things from this article, Pricing is always complicated. If i sell my product too low price, it might give expression like chinese fake poor quality product.
Reference:
http://www.businessweek.com/

20820007 Entry - 6

2008-04-17T23:49:00.000-07:00

‘Today’s challenge is not to let our people go but let our people know’

This article was very challenging and the title very attractive for me because I thought that how can we let our people know. It is about new ‘Ga-ga T-shirt’ and web site where you can see many familiar and not familiar faces to you. Celebrity interviewer Aliza Davidivit who interviewed Canadian Prime minister Pierre Trudeau, Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime minister Mayor Michael Bloomberg and other well know people is launching new website that gives opportunities to buy special T–shirts with Israel historic faces and for visitors to know about notorious heroes in Israel history as nation approach 60th birthday. Have you ever heard about these two people like Ben Gurion and Golda? For me I haven’t so I searched about these people to find out who they are. Ben Gurion is first prime minister of Israel who leaded Israel to victory in Arab Israel war and helped to build state instructions. So Davidovit purpose for creating this T-shirt and web blogs is to help young generations to get know and excite with the past. Therefore these T-Shirts are an honorable tribute to great leaders who contended to build the Jewish state. Some famous people like comedian Jackie Mason, CNN journalist Larry King and Bon Jovi keyboardist David Bryan are joining effort. Additionally one another goal for this project is to raise funds to help shattered families by terror. The site also offers blogs to honor Moshe Dayan, Ariel Sharon, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin and others and scheduled to launch today.

My opinion
Every young generation of every nation is the future of their country. Based on this specific point the main target for this business are teenagers and students in order to give Israel teens chance to know about their country, its leaders and make sure what they did to build Israel state. I think advertisement is very attractive because Davidivit using famous people to model and promote the product and offering clear message by encoding (“Who are Ga-ga for?’) to reach the target. As chapter 17 says that as consumers becoming more skeptical about commercial we should use right media and should offer clear messages about the product. You can visit this website from today http://www.israelturns60.org/ if you interested how it is looks like and if you want to buy it. It costs about $18.

Reference:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/

20400442-Entry 6

2008-04-17T23:29:00.000-07:00

Brown Starbucks!

Angel-in-Us, Tom N Toms, Coffee Beans, Java Express...These are all well known coffee shops which are successfully estalished as a culture in modern people's daliy lives. Best of all these coffee makers, without any doubts, is Starbucks. However, Starbucks has been criticised for their high price. Finally, they made a brave decision to give further satisfaction to their customers by changing the color of their brand logo.

Starbucts, as we learned, is selling not only coffees and muffins, but also planting American culture into Korea. As many other competitors came into the market giving other alternatives to Starbucks' customers, higher price became more stressful and burdensome.

Opinion

I am sure this one brave action of changing the color of Starbucks logo will bring consequences other than just ease the criticism. Starbucks currently is almost a fashion now in Korea. Anyone can easily assume that fashionable Korean will find a way to make themselves look more cool with new Starbucks logo.

It was a surprise for me to see a company with so strong brand power, such as a Starbucks to change their previous existing brand logo. The article says that Starbucks will provide a new blend of coffee in the cup with brown Starbucks logo. This newer blend will have smoother taste hoping to ease customers' criticism on high price.

Once again, it is always not enough to put more emphasize on brand power that eventually will lead the company to more profit.

Reference

20500356-entry 5

2008-04-11T21:55:00.000-07:00

How could E-mart merge Wal-mart in Korea?

2 years ago, there was a shocking event in distribution market. Wal-mart, the largest distribution company of the world has sold their whole business to E-mart and withdrawn from Korean market.
Wal-mart, which started their business 30 years ago, had ruled as a leader of retailing market by ‘every product, by everyday low price’. It was supported by innovative supply chain and generalization policy, and then wal-mart could continuously rule. They’d become the largest distribution company, and they tried to enter Korean market by 2nd time in Asia. However, during they were running business in Korea, wal-mart had taken inferior market-share continuously, and then finally wal-mart had to quit from Korea. I want to see the reason which made wal-mart fail in the market of Korea.

First, there already were other discount stores, which were leading the market. 5 years before wal-mart entered to korea, e-mart had been established as the1st discount store, and other following stores had been also. , they had been grown up by selling ‘every product, by everyday low price’ which was advantages of walmart. Wal-mart’s distinguishable point was no longer distinguishable in korea, so they couldn’t help entering as following compony, not leading one. I think that, Korean companies could defend on wal-mart’s low price attack, and that they did. When wal-mart entered, e-mart performed progressive marketing ‘guarantee of lowest price’ and took their poser away. In addition, wal-mart’s position made somewhat premium as foreign company, and that bothered their lowest-price-image.

Second, they should have enlarged their market share by maximizing their distinguishable advantage, but they failed. They adjusted their generalization policy, which was their way to success, to korea. I think they should have done their policy in dimension of korea, and Korean market should have been specialized differently to other markets. Wal-mart set up their every thing, from product to height of board, but Korean consumers didn’t want that. Rather Korean store reacted to their needs. E-mart recognized that the patterns of Korean customers were about food product leaded by housekeepers, so they did, and it worked. Korean wanted the atmosphere of market to be loud like traditional market, so Korean stores put the selling agents to make that and succeed, but wal-mart failed, because they made the atmosphere like department store. I have been both wal-mart and e-mart, and I could feel the different mood of two stores.

Retailers should deliver what customers want, because they contact with them directly. The failure of wal-mart shows that very well. I’ve learned how to do if I get a job related to retailing.

http://news.naver.com/tv/read.php?mode=LSS2D&section_id=115&section_id2=292&office_id=055&article_id=0000071053&menu_id=115

http://h21.hani.co.kr/section-021003000/2006/06/021003000200606220615013.html

20501005 - Entry 5

2008-04-11T07:46:00.000-07:00

Building a Better Brand

Giant companies know their brands are worth a fortune. The key to marketing your business is finding a timeless position and staying focused

original article

To sum up the article, there are three important things to build a better brand in the article.

1. Keeping focus

As you evaluate your own brand's positioning, don't focus on features that will soon be co-opted by your competitors. Consider the primary benefits your brand provides and what they really add up to. Then examine the extent to which your positioning passes six key tests: relevance, simplicity, differentiation, believability, credibility, and defensibility.

2. Adding value

Most brands are a long way from being worth $21 billion. But all of them are worth something, and the better the branding efforts the more value a brand can add to the products and services to which it's attached.

3. Taking your positions positioning is not really a difficult concept: At root, it's simply the rational and emotional benefits people associate with a brand.

If somebody asked you "Is Nike a better shoe than Reebok?"You might say "Sure" Can you answer the reason? How do you feel when you hear the word'Nike'?Well, I might think of "Just do it"and also if we see soccer game,we can see many players who wear nike products.In the article, there is an example of global brand, Coca-Cola. The Coca-Cola brand is so well established in our minds that we could work backwards from it and come to essentially the same place. As Prof.Lee emphasizes in marketing class, building a nice brand is very important.In practice, it may be more difficult! but we should try to make our brand well.That's why I tried so hard to make my business card well, which expresses my brand. We should know that the importance of brand name. Just think of us, we like Northface ,but we might dislike Redface which seems like a fake. So, I think we as well as Korea should have a brand power! and when

we do real business, we should be aware of it!

20501034 -Entry 5

2008-04-11T06:35:00.000-07:00

Original Article

World renowned company,
Nestle defeated in Korea

My opinion
The first moment that I read this article, I thought it would be great marketing plan. While all the companies were trying to convince that their products were better than any other products, Nestle differentiated the marketing plan. Nestle emphasized on not their product but excellence of breast milk. However, Nestle seemed to lag behind catching current trend.
When Nestle launched into Korean powdered milk market, Korea has transition era which more and more traditional home mom is becoming modern and career women. They were not as much dedicated as traditional mom. They were more concerning about their figure and beauty and have a purchase power. Generally speaking, these new generation mom chose buy the best or upper-intermediate level of powdered milk rather than give children their breast mile which is recognized bad for figure of breast. In this way, Nestle couldn’t really appeal to new generation mom who became the biggest target in powdered milk market and World renowned food company, Nestle was kicked out of market 2 years after they launched.

In this way, marketing plan should be premised on having a good grasp of current trend and proper analysis about main target. Otherwise, it’s matter of time to be kicked out.

20820007 Entry - 5

2008-04-11T03:11:00.000-07:00

Asian Inflation Begins to Sting U.S. Shoppers

This article is about how inflation is affecting American customers. Inflation usually defined in economics as “increasing prices of set of goods and services.” Asian developing countries like China, Vietnam, and India where labor cost was low, are producing almost half of American imports. As consequences of inflation during last years in these countries is affecting American consumers hardly making they to pay more for goods they demand. In Vietnam price rose 19.4% from March 2007 to March 2008 because of inflation. In Foshan, China price also was raised by 10% from where bathroom fixtures are imported to North America. As a price of goods is increasing workers are also asking for higher wages which means that customers will also cover this additional cost. At the same time in Philippines and India inflation is keeping rising. According to government’s Consumer Price Index the prices of goods were increased by 4 % in United Sates. Additionally it is urgent to slow down inflation in order to take pressure of inflation from customers.

solutions:

There is much kind of methods to control inflation. Vietnam’s central bank had ordered to commercial bank to resume buying dollars within the tight range of exchange rate. Also to decline the inflation many banks refusing to accept dollars in large amounts and dollars are no longer mighty because of America trade deficit which itself causes inflation in developing countries. I saw that in Korea also exchange rate of dollar is so low. China and India decreasing inflation by combination of price control and subsidies even Vietnam has imposed price control on transportation and gasoline. I understand that customers are main carrier of inflation causes and to protect and keep our customers we should carefully make decisions as a manager that are less harmful to them because there was a situation when businessmen making fake inflation by raising commodity price beyond government control and washing black money.

Reference:http://www.nytimes.com/

20820014 Entry-5

2008-04-11T02:01:00.000-07:00

Europe’s New Herd Mentality

European farmers used to fight globalization. Now they are embracing it.
( summary of the article)

Not long ago, powerful farm lobbies-backed by the government of France –fought EU reforms designed to open up Europe’s regimented agricultural sector to greater market forces. Now, europe’s farmers see the rising profit, many of the same agro activists are getting richer as a result.
“European 50-year-old subsidy system and market forces were very perverse’ says Luc Morelon spokesman for Brittany based- Lactalis, europe’s biggest cheese and dairy product. As a result of this subsidy and protection european countries had tremendous excess production and they had sold at far below price on the world market.
In order to prevent this wasteful subsidies, politicsdid agreement among member states that total EU budget should not exceed 1% of the bloc’s total GDP.
The result of this entrepreneur decision european farmers are seeking out new international markets for their product. The farmers have an incentive to grow only what’s most profitable in other words they are shifting into areas where they can get the highest returns on the world market. As a result, EU exports are dropping rapidly in sugar, poultry, cereals and other raw goods but rising finished products like sausage and ham have helped Europe to become the biggest agricultural exporter. Now european milk is made into higher value cheese, a booming global market now that the growing middle classes of Asia, Russia and middle East. With its strong brands and efficiency supply chains, europe has expanded its share of the global cheese trade from 35-42% since 1999.
Of all the major agricultural powers – including the U.S and Brazil- the EU has become the least dependent on the sale bulk commodities.

Opinion

The first thought that came in my mind is I wonder why north east asia has no commision or union.Why not north east asian countries make an broad agreement not only for politic but also for international commerce like NAFTA or EU. Perhaps it,s because of two large countries’ beneficial aspects: China and Japan ? …
For mongolia , we have specialized much more in herding livestocks and making dairy products than any other business or industries. As well as our major export products are beef, cashmere, camel and sheep wool things like that almost all are belong to agricultural sector.
Also, our total import products are 48% from china, 20% from russia, 4 %from japan and 3% from korea, according to the statistic of the national trade commission.
Therefore I am reflecting is it possible for mongolia to create new strong agricultural brand with neighbor countries? …

Reference;
Business week magazine, 28 th of march, 2008

20400442-Entry 5

2008-04-10T21:45:00.000-07:00

One of the features of Amazon.com that led it to such a success is cutomers' information gathered and classified by the data base. Here is a another product that was rather unpredictable using customers' information about preferences.

TiVo is a video recorder. However, it is very much different with video recorders that we know. It doesn't need tapes to put in. Two or more programs can be recorded at same time. It is linked to lagular cable TVs and can search for desired program using a system called Universal Swivel Search scaning hundreds of cable channels and the Web. It is designed in a way that it cannot find pay-to-view programs by satellite providers.

The most outstanding feature about the product is that, like the system of Amazon and so many other successful businesses, it remembers what a particular user watched previously! It seldomly informs the list of programs of preference to the watcher.

TiVo is a solution to the problem of audiences with watching TV. It was hard to know what kind of program is on air at what time, and if one missed the time, couldn't return the time and watch the program he wanted. Furthermore, even if he decided to record a program, it needed tons of time and effort (at least he might feel this way) just to watch one program which most of the time is not worthed. Considering TiVo is able to free customers from these problems, the product delivers a big value to them.

The marketer should have gone through a reasonable brain storm that he reached to such a good solution!

Reference

20400442 Entry 4

2008-04-04T17:23:00.000-07:00

In the basement under the offices of founders William Hewlett and David Packard, there is a mistarious room full of giant screens around the wall giving a feeling to visitors they are in some kind of a wonderland. The place is for younger program designers to hang out hoping right ideas would come.
The executives of HP slowly starts to say that they were too busy to make high functional computers and other products to show supreme functionality. As a consequence, HP has became synonymous with complacency and high costs. They said old program designers made technologies and products, expecting customers to buy them. However, top executives come to realize that they are missing something very basic in their marketing, saying "We were missing the DNA of an organization that had its finger on customer desires!"
So the company is trying to support and provide "Innovative Progam Office" as a prototype to feel cutomers' need again having a slogan "The computer is personal again."

My Opinion

How in the world playing in a basement full of giant screens all over the room helps anyone to come up with what customers want?? Reading the article gave me a lesson. I was missing a whole point thinking having a superior advantages over technology can give a company sustainable advantage. I was wrong. The first thing of Marketing was to know what customers want and to fulfill that want... Marketing was setting direction of a company... The room..one of Innovative system to creat Personal system was one of the company's idea to promote their product to meet customers want...

20500356-entry4

2008-04-04T07:58:00.000-07:00

How “competitive” became turbulence to market
-in view of brand

Last class, we learned about competitive turbulence. When product successfully makes a profitable market, competitors get to look at the market and come into there. That makes a competition, and companies get to have needs to lower the price down in order to have comparable advantage. That calls the quality down, and then the product fails because of it – that is what we learned.-

Competitors might be turbulence by threatening the brand-power of original product. When companies easily have brand-power when they make new market – by its first-mover product, the success of the market calls competitor, and such of them tend to copy the concept of 1st mover. We call it ‘me-too’ products. They have no creative/distinguishable figure, but just follow the market trend. In case of view, they could bring the market-growth by spreading the product. However, me-too products have a dangerous characteristic.

They can spoil the market itself, then it could be failure not only competitors and themselves. It occurs because, consumers have the image to the market less clear and market has less impact on them. Consumers get to have an image to market by their 1st mover brand. Me-too product makes consumers confused to the brand, and the confusing moves to market itself. It brings the dislike to market, with the fall of demand, and it makes market fail.

We can look at the example of ‘Bi-rak Seekhye(rice nectar)”. 15 years ago, a traditional beverage “Seekhye” appeared to market. Soon it became an impressive trend on beverage market, because there was huge needs of traditional product on side effect of globalization (ex>UR) and there was no product which meets the need. Market size was rapidly grown in 140 times. No sooner as the product made a profitable market, the competitors came. Near 70 companies got into the rice-nectar market, and it brought the whole-market failure. Almost of them disappeared with depression of market, and now there is only 10 companies making “Seekhye”.

Companies use an interesting method to protect their brand – by registering almost of available brand name. When companies launch the product, they register not only their own name but similar brand name also, because me-too product primarily names the similar one to easily follow their concept. The article shows that brand is very important things by the ways of delivering the value of product to consumers, because consumers usually estimate the value by their brand-prefer than product itself. That is why companies put their efforts to ‘branding’.

http://www.adic.co.kr/data/sem/cpr9814/cpr1.html statistics about decline of rice nectar market
http://media.daum.net/economic/others/view.html?cateid=1041&newsid=20020401060147165&cp=donga me-too product
http://www.hankyung.com/news/app/newsview.php?aid=2007032007831 protection of brand

20820007 Entry - 4

2008-04-04T05:03:00.000-07:00

China: Top in tourism, too?

China is the country of rich story and culture which attracting many tourists all around the world. According to statistics 132 million people visited China last year and spend 42 billion dollars making it 4th most visited country in the globe. The World Tourist Organization is expecting that it will be no.1 by 2015. Since Beijing won in 2001 to host Olympics it is estimating to welcome 820000 people during it. Compare to Olympics 2000 in Australia it is 2 times more number of visitors. Tourism revenue will be about $183 billion showing growth by 18% up. Many hope that in August it will be busy days for tourist business. The boom will be in the all industries from guest houses to luxury accommodations.

For example, Super 8 Franchise first opened its hotel in 2004 in capital is going to double its location in China. In January it became a member of the Olympic Village Accommodation Service Management Team which is only hotel that won that honor. Many hundred of employees work for it in the Olympic Village where athletes and coaches will stay getting many various services such as restaurant reservation, check mail and others. Also there will be available 11000 luxury high class rooms in the Ritz- Carlton Hotel. Now it has a 2 in the Beijing, one in Guangzhou and first hotel in Shanghai which opened in 1998. It keeping in the secret how much they will earn in revenues but many other hotels already reserved for the 17 days of the Olympics. They will charge from 3 to 10 times their price. As a result it will bring long term economic growth in China.

My opinion

Since China won to host Olympics this year it is a tremendous opportunity for Chinese to promote their rich history and culture to whole globe. Just wining this honor made China known to entire world that every one wants to go China to see Olympics even Beijing’s hotel already reserved due to it. Every one says these days “one world one dream.” Therefore all industries especially tourism industry will rapidly reach high rate of revenue as they expecting to welcome large number of visitors. Also economic growth will be long term. I saw some products in the Internet that represents Olympics in China which means chinese businessmen really sensitive about environment in where they are making business

Reference:www.businessweek.com

20820014 Entry-4

2008-04-04T00:28:00.000-07:00

Managing experience- How to give and receive criticism?

Once one of my leader told me that “ To reach the top of the mountain is not difficult, but to keep standing on the peak is difficult. How long will you stand on this peak depends on your personality and character”.
Obviously everyone faces to criticism in their daily life. As a Christian manager, how we ought to respond when someone finds fault with our own work?
According to this article, the goal of true criticism is help someone be the best they can be. It`s not about making someone feel bad, instilling guilt, or reducing a person to tears.
When criticism is done appropriately, the person who has been criticized will understand what he or she has done wrong and will feel inspired to make a change for the better. Not only should we not avoid being criticized, we should embrace criticism because it is the only way we can continue to grow professionally and personally.
In the article author described 2 kinds of person. One has rich, successful life and generous to others. Another one isn`t noble, doesn`t want to apologize others. He explained that it is the two side of man in other words people can be both of these two. Therefore, criticism should include an acknowledgment of what the person has done well, as well as an account of what he or she has not. Criticism shouldn`t be personal. It's easy to criticize the person rather than his or her ideas, but just because we can do something doesn't mean that we should.

My opinion
Corporate social responsibility also covers employers. Moreover the relationship with employers affect firm`s operation directly. Therefore managers must to know well how to communicate with them in this kind of situation unless they lose their valuable employers.
If we don't have high self-esteem, criticism validates our already low opinion of ourselves. If we're strong and self-confident, criticism might surprise us with an unflattering view of ourselves.
I still thinking and hesitating about how to handle the business by biblical way?

Reference:
http://www.businessweek.com/

20501034 - Entry 4

2008-04-02T08:55:00.000-07:00

Original Article

Since financial crisis occurred, sale of mid-low price toothpaste has been substantially growing and expensive whitening toothpaste is now lag behind. Consumers have needs of the toothpaste that is effective and cheap.

Scale of toothpaste market has been gradually shrinking. Reasonable consumption culture has been settled and consumers wanted mid-low price product rather than pricy product. Therefore, Aegyoung made mid-low price toothpaste which can be used by whole family.

Brand
The product name, 2080 means that 2080 keep your 20 healthy teeth until you are 80. They made product name with number and it appealed to new generation group.

Product
It was developed for whole family. It contains fluorine which protects carious teeth of child. To appeal younger generation, they enhanced whitening effect, foul breath removal effect. In addition to this, it has some components that prevent the elder for having gum disease.

Price
In comparison with it’s competition model; Medi-dent total (Pacific), it’s 40% cheaper and 20% cheaper than Perio (LG). With its competitive price, it satisfied the consumer’s needs which were changed facing financial crisis.

Place
Using distribution chains that locate all around in Korea, Aegyoung aggressively started to sell 2080.

Promotion
Aegyoung supports “the 2080 healthy teeth campaign” that is co-run by Korean Dental Hygiene Association. Aegyoung also try to enhance their name value through consistent TV commercial and media advertisement and emphasizes that 2080 have been awarded “1998 and 1999 hit product.”

Present Status
8 months after dental clinic 2080 toothpaste was on the sale, it has 7% market share of toothpaste. If we look at the market share according to demographics, you will see that it has preference from broad range of age group. (20’s 14.9%, 30’s 8.3 %, 40’s 12.7%, 50’s 8.2%) It could be regarded as the most successful toothpaste for such short period of time.

20501005 - Entry 4

2008-04-02T03:45:00.000-07:00

(Paul Kim)20501005 - Entry 4

A Business Card for Your Avatar
By partnering with online communities and building a geek-chic brand, an online printing startup sells business cards to people without businesses

original article

Well, Today I would like to talk about business cards that prof.Lee has given us as a project.While I was thinking about how to make my business card which should express myself well,I found this article which is about Moo,a London-based online printing company.You may wonder how Moo is different from other printing companies.Let me tell you the reason. Moo is selling business cards(or, more accurately, calling cards) to people who don't have businesses. Instead, they have blogs, online photo sets, and avatars. It was a hugh and new niche!!Since Moo has launched its services in September, 2006, it has shipped more than 30,000 orders to 140 countries. Isn't it amazing?Can you realize the reason why it is successful?Moo offers services that people can customize their business cards, and there are lots of options people can choose.In addtion, Moo made some partnerships with some of the Web's most popular online communities, so it can enlarge its market share and brand value.According to the article, At half the height of a standard business card, Moo's "minicards" offer a distinctive canvas, and for about 25¢ each users can put a different image on every single card they order, with a simple drag, drop, zoom, and crop. Wow,, It is impressive.Now, I am thinking of something innovative and special design for my own business card.I think it might be great that I get some idea from Moo's design.Anyway, these days I am so excited to think of my own business card.I'll try to make the best one! :)

20500356-Entry 3

2008-03-28T07:20:00.001-07:00

Last week, there was a special lecture of prof. Larry Linamen about global illicit trades. I was interested in his speech about illegal products such as imitations or illegal copies, because I’d had an opposite opinion to his.

I thought that people use those products because the genuine product is too expensive; companies seem to me that they take improper profit through the price. Microsoft’s Windows is good example for my opinion, which is too high price and many friends of mine normally use illegal copies of it. I thought that consumers’ use of illegal copies is reasonable because of unreasonable price.

I read these articles when I was seeking ones that could defend my thought. They said that Korean companies were suffering for illegal imitations made in china. The damage from that was no less than 17 billion dollars. That fact let me think again about illegal products. I’d been regarding the invisible value such as brand power as unrighteous profit.

The use of illegal products gives huge loss to companies, and they raise the price up to recover the loss. Therefore, consumers who lost purchase power can’t help using illegal use so the scale of illegal product industry grows up. That is a vicious circle. In addition to that, another cost appears to regulate production and sale of those products; that raises price up. In the end, both producers and consumers are damaged from illegal product, and it is loss of entire society.

Then what should we do to root illegal product out? Finally it would be responsibility of both producers and consumers. Producers have to sell their products on reasonable prices, and consumers ought to know that the damage of illegal product retrns to themselves.

There is a excellent example of removing illegal copies. Hangul&Computer is the most famous company of word-processor market in korea. In 1998, they got in financial difficulty because of illegal copies, and they were willing to sign MOU with Microsoft to withdraw at word-processor market in condition of financial support of Microsoft. People got to know the fact, and they started a movement to save Hangul&Computer. It is Hangul815 that came out in this situation. It was so cheep that consumers can buy genuine copies, and it was sold over 650 thousand copies in market that was ruined by illegal copies. Thanks to the product, the company could survive and continue to product better programs.

I’ve founded the importance of using genuine products through prof. Larry Linamen’s lecture and searching for the articles about it. In consumer’s perspective, using genuine copies gets company to make new and better goods, which is profitable both to the society and me. In perspective of future businessman, and also, I’ve founded that I should decide reasonable price so that consumers don’t attempt use illegal products.

20501034 - Entry3

2008-03-28T05:13:00.000-07:00

What makes Bean Pole different.

Bean Pole is one of Cheil industries Inc. affiliation and it launched in 1989. Once they launched, they have shown average 30% net sales growth every year. They also announced “No sale policy” when all the clothing companies were doing bargain sales.
In the high ended traditional casual market, Bean pole has majority of market share and it is being chosen by department store buyer as a best marketing power brand, best service, etc.

Brand concept

Bean pole is originated from Boston where produce a lot of bean and has traditional image. The concept of Bean Pole is European neo traditional. As a British style that represent history and tradition, Bean Pole pursue not to chase the trend.

SWOT Analysis

Strength
Bean Pole has strong customer loyalty and trust.
Through high quality and price, it formed high quality image.
It has local-centered distribution chain.
Marketing mix is consistently being performed.

Weakness
Weak feedback system
Less recognition in local area
Insufficient marketing for potential customer with long term perspective

Opportunity
Using popular Korean culture in China, expanding business in China is expected to be promising
It is expected to find new customer group by developing sub-brand like Bean Pole Golf, Bean Pole Ladies, Bean Pole Homme.

Threat
Competition with foreign brand will be harder and harder
Brand image could be damaged by fake goods

20501005 - Entry 3

2008-03-28T04:00:00.000-07:00

Brands: The Power of Emotion
The savviest marketers understand that successful products appeal to the heart, not the mind

original article

Before I talk about this article, I'd like to talk about the book"Dream Society" at first.
As you know, last year, there was a world conference called "2008 World Knowledge Forum" in Seoul.
The book "Dream Socirty" was written by Rolf Jensen who is a futurologist in Denmark.He was one of speakers at the conference held in Seoul.
When I read this book last year and I got inspired so much.This is a thchnology-driven era now.
However, according to his book, dream society will soon come and change our life style.
Dream society is a new era in which emotion is the most important thing to attract customers.In other words, things related to emotion or story telling will become more important than technology things.
Same as the book, this article tells us the power of emotion marketing.Basically, both book and article say the same point I think.
There are several examples and cases of emotional marketing in the article.
What's driving the purchase decision? the answer would be "emotion marketing"

Like Prof.Lee said in our class, marketing is all about the perception of value.
Now we can perceive the value by using emotinal marketing.
As the article said, we're emotional beings,and we respond to emotional appeals. We should recognize the importance of emotional marketing! as savvy marketers!

20400442-Entry 3

2008-03-27T20:43:00.000-07:00

Marketers who Change the World!

The article said it was from the Air Resources Board's perspective by which California decided to cut by 70 percent the number of electric cars and other zero-emission vehicles automakers will be required to sell in coming years. The article added, this will eventually put a pressure on automakers to invest and produce the future anti-pollution vehicles such as cars run by electricity or hydrogen.

After I saw a video on converting movement energy of human into a electricity in the class, I was very challened! There were so many people who are so much innovative about something that I did not even put a slightest consideration. I could not hold myself from researching more of those stories actually happening not very far away. This time, I was litteraly shocked as I looked through information about activities. England was using wind power to generate 5% of all electrictities required by the nation. Germany was another forerunner exploiting renewable energy and putting it to use in daily lives of German.

I was ashamed by the fact that our nation is not putting an effort on such innovative, but so much in need in future, development. However, at the same time, it gave me a lucid lesson that marketers are not only trying to make money, but also are contributing to improvement of mankind by foreseeing future needs and make an action to meet the needs.
I now know that good marketers view big!!

Referrence: California cuts furture quotas for air-clean cars

20820007 – Entry 3

2008-03-27T06:40:00.000-07:00

You can help Oral B
Share the Joy of Smile

Everytime you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, and a beautiful thing said Mother Theresa.

Procter & Gamble have a strong social responsibility to develop strong ties to the society in which we live and work and focusing on children in need. Oral B is cooperating with Samanta Harris on the new project- Oral B Satin Floss. The project will not only promote how to make our smile more brilliant but also will give donation to children medical charity. ‘ I am thrilled to be working with Oral B Satin Floss on this campaign benefiting and to be giving children around the world the opportunity to share their smiles with others”, says Harris. Consumers can log on www.oralb.com/savesmile from 19th of March and help children smile around the globe. For every buyer pledge Oral b Floss will make a donation to Operational Smile. Operational Smile is a worldwide children’s medical charity which founded in 1982 which helps improving health of children and young adults. It has already treated 115000 children born with cleft lips, cleft palates and other facial problems.

Few about product:

The flossing twice a day is important for oral health but also other health issues. One of the benefits of it is clinically proven.

Oral B Satin Floss provides following features:

Satin – like finish is gentle on gums and fingers for your comfort
Easy insert, so you can reach even the tightest spots
Comfortable to handle, even when wet
Available in mint flavor

My opinion

If companies only focused on profit they are no longer to keep their consumers. Procter & Gamble is really sensitive about society where we live and seeking problems to solve benefiting children and entire people who are in need as well. I think by the project purpose and other children focused social help P&G will more appreciated and attracted by their consumers. Even when people use the teeth floss they will think that many children are smiling. They are benefiting their selves by using Oral B Floss and also helping children. Thank you to P&G for giving this opportunity.

Reference:
www.P&G.com/news
www.qoutegarden.com/smiles
http://www.operationsmile.org/

20820014 Entry-3

2008-03-27T03:04:00.000-07:00

If you paint the town red what do you paint everything else?

It`s one of the motto of Pepsi`s new brand Tava. According to the chapter 2, we learn developing marketing strategies. So, I want to search how to use STP and growth strategies in reality.
Pepsi-Cola North America is bringing out fruit flavored and caffeine free
soft drink named Tava. The main attraction of the product is it is not contain significant source of calories from trans fat, saturated fat, cholesterol dietary fiber, vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium and iron.
The decision by the North American division of Pepsi-Cola, the new brand is introduced by online or its own website (tava.com) to reach targeted consumers. The target is at age 35-49 men and women. According to their strategy “This consumer spends significant time online, although what they do may differ from the younger consumer. They’re not I.M.-ing their friends; they’re looking at e-mail or looking up information about travel, music, food. The target spends significant amounts of time online every day.
In addition, the online aspects of the campaign extend beyond local markets. The Web sites on which the Tava ads are to appear include AOL, chow.com, CitySearch, dailycandy.com, discovery.com, Evite, MSN, oprah.com, People and weather.com.
Moreover to reach more, decision makers turned to agencies like Tribal DDB Worldwide, the interactive unit of DDB Worldwide, part of the Omnicom Group; TracyLocke, an Omnicom shop that aimed at promotions through Omnicon advertising agency. The campaign is targeting eight major markets where consumers seem to appreciate soft drinks. They are Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Seattle and Raleigh, N.C.
The vice president of Pepsi-Cola North America said “To build trust between a consumer and a brand, people need to feel they’re sharing it with other people instead of a corporation pushing it down on them. The goal is to have people experience the product on their own terms and turn them into brand ambassadors.
My opinion
Product development strategy is one of the growth development strategies which offers a new product or service to a firm`s current target market. I have learned following things from this article.
1. New product must have strong competitive advantage to be succeed.
2. Positioning is vital to reach targeted consumers. In this case they use 2 strategies: online and shopping.
3. Firm must encourage consumers to promote their brand as a “ambassador”.

Reference:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/14/business/media/14adco.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

http://www.tava.com

Entry-2 Oyun-20820014

2008-03-22T10:35:00.000-07:00

Analysis on segmentation targeting and positioning (STP)
I have learned many new things about developing marketing strategies from chapter 2 . But still something was not clear in my mind and textbook information was not sufficient. So, I wanted to explore it much more, and read some article that is implemented in real life.
The article is about a major pharmaceutical firm search positioning and communicating
strategy which targets patients who would most benefit from a new drug therapy. So, they need clear, accurate, and actionable advertising campaign.
The firm collaborated to Knowledge Networks (KN) – the research company that delivers affordable, statistically valid online research through Knowledge Panel SM – to conduct a segmentation. KN’s design and approach defined three clearly elements.
1.Use of workshop and shareholder`s business needs
KN recognizes that marketing investment and communication decision are collaborative work. Therefore 1st step was to make a core project team. This team reviewed several key elements, including;
-who would use the product and targeting
-the distinct roles and responsibilities in core project team
-a formal review of info, and its survey, analytic plan
-segmentation solutions, senior management, PR, ad agency etc.
2. Getting Science right
KN used a technique that would support “visible” elements including demographics and other criteria used to reach targets with the intangible needs such as needs, attitudes, and concerns. To distinguish consumer needs and enhance the quality they highlighted the benefit of treatments( no upset stomach, fast acting, fewer doses). In addition, KN has provided more information such as intermediate health needs, lifestyle, and beauty advices. This resulted groups of consumers who have same needs, attitudes and benefits, yet within different between segments. The segments were richer, truer to life and easier to find.
3 . Choosing a representative data source.
It`s essential to choose right representative data source to increase firm`s opportunities. KN is the only nationally representative internet panel. Knowledge Networks helped its pharmaceutical partner attain actionable results. KN attained the right mix of input and quality data by providing a rich understanding of behaviors and emotional elements.
My opinion
As a consequence of successful STP , a firm can increase its strategic opportunities. I think this pharmaceutical firm could determine their segmentation and targets successfully. And know they should consider market positioning well. They should target several group people who are difficult to reach online, but who could pronounce treatment needs.

Reference:
http://www.marketingpower.com/content/Knowledge%20Networks%20Segmentation%20Case%20Study%20June%202007.pdf

20820007 Entry2 Bayarmaa

2008-03-22T08:01:00.000-07:00

The Problems with Business as Usual

Author who wrote this article is Keith McFarland a two time technology CEO also founder of McFarland Strategy Partners.

Everyone wants to succeed in their business but sometimes it goes far from our thoughts to wrong direction. When I read this article I feel something different from what I know and what I thought. To lead a company is not only making profit but also making and renewing it regularly by new strategies in order to keep it ceaseless. I understand from his examples that when people get into the routine their mind shift to neutral- they become less competitive and less adaptable which cause to loose in the business. There are 3 important questions he suggesting to evaluate your companies and avoid from hidden danger- routine. Maybe I can also apply this question strategy to my real life later. I hope it will probably work. Let’s look it together what was it !

When he was climbing near his home with his 2 friends who are good at climbing, hurt. He tried to see the reason: misunderstanding of climbers and belayer the person who holds the belay which controls the safety rope. “On belay” means that belayer can catch others in the event of a fall. “Off belay” is opposite. Injured friends believed that it was in “On belay” when he wasn’t.
Similarly, in the business when the environment of the company changes externally and internally, routines that causes problems tend to accumulate. For example company that one of the first in its industry segments to move production to China. It thinks that Chinese production is the only solution to all its problems but real was European customers. They plan to stop purchasing Chinese made products because of its company’s heavy use of coal for energy that harmful for ecology. European customers are against ecological pollution. Company thought that it was “On belay”. In the result they were the out of game.

What is the solution for our routine that causes problems? If we can’t change our thoughts according to external and internal environment we can’t succeed in our business. Smart leaders know how to manage their business appropriately. Let’s see the Talking strategy by Keith McFarland:

One way to eliminate the routine is regularly talking about new strategies. His company always makes few hours discussion of strategy together to adapt strategy all level employees and discuss how to avoid of routines. To experience it on your own company following questions will help you:

In the past 90 days, what were our three most important strategic accomplishments?
Talk only best strategic accomplishment that made company more successful.

In the 90 days, what were our three most important strategic ways we fell short of our potential?
Talk about aims that company should achieve but it couldn’t.

In the past 90 days, what are the three most important things we have learned about our strategy?
Talk about what was the advantage from the strategy.

Next time he will use not “on belay” and “off belay” but “safe” or “die”. You can also try finding routine and changing them. It can make you difference.

Reference:
http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/mar2008/sb20080321_755719.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_small+business

20500356 yang jinbyeong

2008-03-21T19:55:00.000-07:00

How could Orion sustain their 1st mover at Choco-pie?

It was year 1974 that Orion made a product choco-pie. There wasn’t the snack like it, so orion became to open new market with choco-pie. They were 1st mover of the market. The market growed so fast, and so did the company. They monopolized the market, there was no competition, Orion had so strong identity with Choco-pie.(people usually reminded Orion’s when they heard Choco-pie).

But a competitor dived into the market. Lotte started to make cacao-pie, which is too similar to distinguish with choco-pie. Orion claimed them to the court, but they lose. Choco-pie became the common noun of that kind of product. Then any compony became able to make it if they wanted, and they did- Haitai in 1986, Crown in 1989. there were so many kinds of choco-pie, and consumers get confused.

*we call those kinds of product(lotte choco-pie) as ‘me-too product’. Sometimes me-too product destroy the 1st mover, by leaping or by destroy the whole market image. We can see leaping in case of pepsi, and second one can be seen in case of ‘비락식혜’. 비락식혜 was the 1st mover of traditional beverage market and once became a trend, but they couldn’t sustain the market, because so many me-too product appeared and spoil the unique image of that kind of beverage.

Orion says that they overcame the crisis by 2 stratage. One is to make brand-image. They connected concept ‘정’ with the product(‘정’ had many concept about feeling, like love ,sympathy communicate, which touched consumer’s heart. They made persuasive public perception about their choco-pie. That made their product unique, and Orion could sustain their 1st mover advantage in korea. Second is to go abraad. They made new market on Russia, china and Vietnam, and there they became 1st mover. Now orion has 73% of market share over the world.I think there are additional thing that Orion could keep their position. is the quality. Many companies make choco-pie, but they targets on the low-price market only. I think it is because they cannot catch up the quality and unique flavor of Orion. Lotte Chocopie is too sweet, crown’s is too easily crumble. I think Orion’s tech to make best quality product make it can be.

link: http://www.chocopie.co.kr/info/about.asp

http://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/%EC%B4%88%EC%BD%94%ED%8C%8C%EC%9D%B4

20501005 - Entry 2

2008-03-21T06:15:00.001-07:00

Paul Kim ( 20501005 ) - Entry 2

original article

Have you heard of the hot dog professor?
When I saw the article about Hot Dog University in Milwaukee, I thought “oh what kind of stupid article is it?” Same as you guys, I’ve never heard about that kind of silly university. However, this is true.

Although, it might look a little bit stupid, we can learn many things from this article as students studying marketing management.

The founder of Hot Dog university is a man named Mark Reitman. He thinks himself PhD and professor of hot dogs.
His lecture would be summarized in several points. He focuses on some basic facts in marketing that we tend to neglect. These are his points.

1. Find a prime location

2. Keep your menu simple

3. Find ways to advertise for free

4. Put on a good show

5. Appeal to the senses

6. Pay attention to industry trends

It looks simple yet it is very important. We need to make these facts balanced.
I think this article is especially meaningful to us who have never tried our own businesses. We learn knowledge not only from our books but also from our experience. Since, my dream is to be a successful owner of an Italian restaurant, I am very interested in these points. Even though I have learned about 4Ps, STP and so on from my book, I have no experience in real marketing and business field. If we look at the assignments that Prof. Lee gave us, we can know what he is trying to tell us. He might think that the most important to know about marketing is to experience that!! From our real experience, we can learn many things that can’t be obtained from reading major books. I guess that is why Prof. Lee gave us lots of real making assignment.

2. The Era of Superpremium Water

2008-03-19T19:56:00.000-07:00

Original Article

Summary
Florida businessman Jeff Moats plans to sell a superpremium water brand, Equa in luxurious restaurants. His marketing plan is to emphasize on purity. They said “Equa is from Amazon rainforest. Amazon rainforest is probably the last place in Earth that holds boundless mystery and mystique.”

Looking around what’s going on here
Once I had an opportunity to have a meal in luxurious restaurant in Seoul. When I sat down, waiter came and he handed over water list. I was surprised seeing menu that is only for the water. On the list, there were various premium water brands from Norway, France. He even explained the tastes of water. The price of a glass of water is from 6,500 to 10,000 won. Later, I noticed he is water sommelier who evaluates the taste of various waters and recommends for customer. ‘Water Café’ that sells professionally only water is booming. Why is high premium water brand getting so popular.

Why is high premium water brand getting popular?
In my opinion, the reason why people are finding finest water brand might be mainly three things, growing awareness of environment, well-being, people’s purchasing power. They learned how harmful polluted water could be it but they don’t want to be harmed by that. Therefore, they are finding absolutely pure water. Increasing the number of people who have purchasing power is one of the factors. I believe those three things accelerate the demands of premium water brand.

The way of winning in water business
As I mentioned before, people expect absolute purity from the premium water. In this sense, Equa focuses on just purity. They emphasize on they made Equa with the water form the Amazon rainforest where people feel exotic and mysterious and might be pure. While the most dominant competitor, Norwegian brand Voss is manufacturing their water from Europe, producing water from Amazon could be regarded as new approach. To establish high quality water brand, design of bottle is critical as well. Equa’s bottle doesn’t have a lot of detail, it simple and just looks like rain droplets. You probably feel comfortable seeing Equa's bottle because there are not many letters, colors or pictures. Again, emphasize on purity. Hence, success would depense on how well they deliver the purity of their product to their target customers through advertisement and promotion.

Student ID : 20501034

#Reference

Business week

Chosun Ilbo

http://www.equawater.com/

20400442-Entry 2

2008-03-18T01:16:00.001-07:00

Market Development

Hyundai's trucks, buses gaining ground in Russia.

The article for this week is about the market development of Hyundai in Russia. The article states that as the Russian economy is booming with a constant increase of oil prices and an inflow of oil money, mid- and large-sized commercial vehicles are needed more and more. In fact, Hyundai already sold 1,955 commercial vehicles in the Jan-Feb period, which is 136% higher rate from a year ago.

In chapter 2 of our textbook states that in order for a firm to grow, it has mainly 4 choices that it can make; product development, market development, market penetration, diversification.

When a firm targets existing market with a new product, it's called product development. Similarly, market development is targeting new market with existing product. It can also find a way to sell more products to a current market (market penetration), or exploit new market with a new product (diversification).

This article clearly shows how hyundai is trying to grow using market developing strategy.

Hyundai saw a growing need for mid- and large-sized commercial vehicles in Russia. Wise marketers of Hyundai decide to exploit new Russian market with already existing product, in this case, vehicles with which Hyundai is famouse for the superior quality.

I still remember when I was in Thailand for my Junier-High. My house was in 30 minute-distance from the main city, there was a huge container warehouse near my home. I could easily saw a couple of large commercial vehicles everyday. Everything I can remember thinking about those big trucks is that they were Benz'. I hope Hyundai do same thing in Russia. There still are many challenges to be successfully win for marketers of Hyundai. I pray that careful researches about Russian economy and it's international business conditions will be made to make big success in Russia.

Referrnece: www.koreaherald.co.kr/

2008.03.18 - by By Jin Hyun-joo

"Hyundai's trucks, buses gaining ground in Russia"

Oyun -20820014

2008-03-13T01:09:00.000-07:00

Successful marketing on a limited Budget.

When a small business is starting up it usually does not have sufficient capital to market the product or service. That`s why I wanted to know about how marketers handle the challenges of marketing with limited funds. As I read the articles and make some research according to this issue I have obtained some conception and ideas.
There are only two real challenges to marketers faced with limited funds - mental challenges and intellectual ones. If you've got a big budget you can afford to think big. If you haven't, you need from necessity to think small.
As well as, you need to be creative and responsible with every penny you've got.
Marketers with big market can afford to take risks, make guesses about many aspects of their campaign, use mass media, and accept that some amount of wastage is inevitable. In complete contrast, successful marketing on a limited budget is all about getting 'down and dirty' with the detail.
According to the article , the sole purpose of marketing is to 'create a sale'. And the business owner must remember to make sure that their method reaches to the target market effectively.

There is a good news to create a transaction between potential customers and marketer through digital world in other words by the internet.
In recent years customers are increasingly coming to online purchasing. To purchase your product or service through online, obviously you'll need a web site, If you've got a fantastic website with everything a buyer needs you will be a huge success. But the cost of entry is tumbling and you can now get more functionality for your money.
So, you'll need a good web statistics package and a well structured database so that in the fullness of time you can build a CRM campaign to understand your customers' needs and then meet them. Moreover, you can test the market by paying for key words or sponsored links.
. Online advertising is still cheap as a medium, and creative costs can be much lower than traditional ways.
Even though I have learned many things from these articles, i still have a question.
I read the statement that is not clear in my mind.
- DO NOT make your bids ridiculously low because you don’t want to blow your budget.

Is that statement right? Why? I

References:

http://www.canadabusiness.ca/

http://www.wnim.com/

www.google.com

http://uberaffiliate.com

Bayarmaa 20820007

2008-03-11T18:57:00.000-07:00

Adidas, Samsung partner on mobile phone MiCoach

My run, My Rhythm, miCoach

Product:

Adidas and Samsung are working together. Today as a result of their cooperation they offer us a quiet new brand- mobile phone that can coach. Doesn't it sound good? There are 220 different programs (losing weight, marathon) from where you can choose your plan according to your level of training to achieve certain goals. Also MiCoach include a 2-megapixel camera, 1GB MP3 player, Bluetooth, and quad- band connectivity. Therefore it gives you much information such as heart rate, distance covered, and speed of your running. Besides, you can listen to the music that fits to your tempo of running. One disadvantage of MiCoach is not bright display, in the sunny day it can cause some problems. . The companies said this mobile will work with Addidas shoes. Gears you need from Adidas are top and sneaker.

Price:

Pricing have not set yet but in Europe MiCoach will cost 304$ - 608$ depending on services that customer will choose. In North America price does not set yet. Price is expansive because it includes many features. Also you can choose your Micoach from variety of colors such as Dark Gray, Tech Silver, Pink, Red, Blue and etc.

Place:
In the retail stores MiCoach will sell in Europe from this month and in United States by 2009.

Promotion:

As it is a new product you can find some latest articles in the newspaper and if you are looking for more information you can visit http://www.micoach.com/ . I hope very soon we will see the new MiCoach’s ad on TV.

My opinion:

Now days mobile phones are one of the most important part of our daily life almost everybody have their own mobiles. I think it is a good idea-MiCoach. If my mobile contains this kind of features and plus ‘Coach’ it is amazing. Maybe many people agree with me. I think it can attract many customers not depending on their age and gender satisfying their needs and wants. According to the text book that is what Marketing is- satisfying customers needs and wants. In case of Mongolia many people like luxury mobiles with many functions and unique style. Probably they will buy it.

References:
http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/Business/BusinessMonday/2008/03/10/4958781-sun.html
http://www.google.com/
http://www.micoach.com/

Paul Kim 20501005

2008-03-10T09:38:00.000-07:00

Starbucks’ 5p marketing mix

After reading chapter 1 in my book, I could comprehend the overall concept of marketing 4P mix and Value-based marketing. Searching a company that has successful case in marketing, I found Starbucks’ 5P mix that was very interesting to me. According to my book, 4P mix consists of product, price, place and promotion. However Starbucks has one more P which is ‘People’. I wondered why!! Several questions came to my mind. “Why did Starbucks put one more P to marketing 4P mix?” “What kind of marketing plan made Starbucks so successful?” etc… Let’s check these out!

Product: The main point of product strategy is identical coffee taste in all Starbucks stores throughout the world. In order to keep the same taste, they use special cups which have several check points so that baristas can control the amount of water and also customers can customize their coffee up to their preference.
% Barista(Italian): People who make coffee in the bar.

Price: As you know, Starbucks’ coffee has quite high level of price, but it also has high quality. Targeting career women in their twenties and thirties, Starbuck has been keeping price high as well as quality. At first Starbucks began its business in Korea, many people might have thought the price was too expensive. Despite that price which is even more expensive than the price of a meal, it made such a great selling record. From this fact, I could notice that many customers seem to have willingness to pay for coffee with high price as long as it has high quality and satisfies their needs.

Place: As I mentioned, Starbucks’ main target is career women in their twenties and thirties, so it launched many stores at the places where many women are working and passing. For instance, there are more than four stores in Samsung dong, Kang nam, where many targets are.

Promotion: I have never seen any Starbucks’ ad in a TV. Starbucks uses spread marketing (from mouth to mouth) which does not need money. Actually, Starbucks did not intend to use spread marketing. The reason why they had to use that kind of marketing was because they just didn’t have enough money to put an ad in a TV. Anyway, it was so successful and Starbucks has realized that spread marketing is very effective.

People: In my opinion, this is mainly related to customer service. This looks one that only Starbucks’ marketing plan has. But I guess many other companies today might also consider it as an important element. I think Starbucks wanted to strongly emphasize the importance of service and staff education. That might be why they use 5P marketing mix which has one more P(People).

To sum up, Starbucks has been really successful. Behind that there is a critical reason which is Starbucks has been considering customer service its top priority and offering coffee at high quality. In other words, Starbucks has been customer-oriented. Starbucks exactly knew the importance of customer service and satisfaction. I am sure that would be the key to success today.

References
http://www.seri.org/
http://search.businessweek.com/Search?searchTerm=starbucks&resultsPerPage=20
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starbucks

20500356 Jinbyeong Yang

2008-03-10T09:37:00.000-07:00

LG cyon phone, can It be the leading brand of cell-phone market?The worldwide cellphone market is now in rapid change. Apple launched iphone with big issues and Motorola has been thinking about withdrawal from the market. In the circumstance, can LG survive in the cellphone market? I’ll write my post from article about LG’s new cameraphone, by using the concepts from chap.1.LG started to make cellphone later than others, and its business could hardly make a good result. So LG decided to make a new value of cellphones, of which the strategy called ‘black label’.That brought a great success to the company. Now lg is earning lots of money from the market, and has became one of major companies of the market. I want to say LG’s cellphones using 4p and the value.ProductIn tradition, the concept to cellphone was just a handheld phone. It was no more than another electric tool that enables people ubiquatas life. It was no long time ago that conversance movement included cellphone mp3, camera, and other multimedia functions.Lg focused on design. They founded that cellphones could have fashionable values. They launched ‘black label’ phones like Chocolate or Shine, which has great design and figures that could touch consumers emotionally such as touchpad, stainless-shining product.And they could catch up the trend. In the time of year 2005, RAZR of Motorola had made an incredible success in the market by its design. LG sold 13millions of chocolate. They continuously have done great successes.PriceOne of the reason that Lg’s cellphone had great success is their reasonable price. Their ‘black labeled’ Cellphones had targets to young customers of 10~30s, and the price wasn’t to expensive. It’s because they had another phone targeted the rich users, named PRADA phone. It was over $800, but with the price and branding with prada, the price made their image to their needs.PlaceI couldn’t understand the concept ‘place’, so I didn’t write about that.PromotionThey gave the consumers not just a cellphone, but an item which could be good accesaries, by which they could do many multimedia activities. But in korea, I think it has not succeed so much. In korea, anycall is the best phone of the market because of its image and the product itself, and lg cyon has not hurdled it up yet. They not have the belief to customers like one of Samsung anycall.original article address:http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/aug2007/gb20070829_110479.htm

1. Studying iPhone considering marketing mix and value

2008-03-08T21:37:00.000-08:00

Original Article

When it comes to Apple Corporation, I always expect something new, something sensational, something transformational. They made Mac that realized Graphic User Interface before Microsoft’s Windows and actually enabled us to call personal computer from just computer. They made the iPod which not only boost sales and shares of Apple and saved from the crisis but also put Steve Jobs at the center of attention. Facing 35% shares down and softened consumption that probably caused by sub prime mortgage, Can iPhone be killer product for Apple?

I am going to approach iPhone’s marketing plan from the business perspective which I learned from reading chapter 1 in textbook.

Product
“The iPhone is like the Mac for mobile.” says Jakob Nielsen.
Indeed, iPhone’s major appeal might be the function as a tiny Mac computer. iPhone has capability to operate a various software and it has touch screen only interface. People can have videoconference and get the latest information as they wish through the iPhone.

Price
Researching ebay, I found that iPhone 8GB is being sold with around $430. Even though Apple built the premium image and has a number of loyal customers, considering current softened consumption and competition model, Blackberry, the price $430 seems to be way too expensive. I think $370 is proper price point.

Place
You can get iPhone in the AT&T or Apple store. However, I couldn’t find iPhone in Walmart and BestBuy’s web page. They sell iPhone’s accessory but iPhone. However, I don’t think that the limited place to buy iPhone will be a problem. The potential customer groups of iPhone have strong loyalty and bond with Apple which was been built by using Mac and iPod. I believe they are willing to find Apple store as long as they have money.

Promotion
Facing 35 shares down, Apple promotes loyalty to their employees. In Sep 30, 2006, Apple has 17787 full time and 2399 temporary employees. Assuming they sell iPhone with $400 to every single employee, the amount of sales would be around $8 million. Apple also tries to sell companies. However, to increase sales from corporate, as they said up-to-date software, security, corporate level policies, better support should be guaranteed first.

The Value of iPhone
As a tiny computer, iPhone has great value, but currently some controversial issue came. That is how they control the application software for iPhone. There is certain way that potential customers and programmer want, open source. However, Steve Jobs addressed that the application software will be distributed only through the iTunes. In this way, the intrinsic value of iPhone is diminished a little but Apple secures the chances to constantly make the profit providing the latest software.

Student ID :20501034
Reference
Marketing, Grewal and Levy, Mcgraw Hill
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/030708-ten-questions-i-still-have.html?page=3
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc .
http://www.walmart.com/
http://www.bestbuy.com/

20400442 Seungkyu Lee

2008-03-07T07:44:00.000-08:00

20400442 Seungkyu Lee

My Opinion

After reading the article below, I opened the textbook to use as a reference to analyze Asustek’s marketing. First thought that came to my mind was, ‘Will the mini-sized laptop really going to convince customers to pay their opportunity costs to get one of these Eee Pc?’ In other words, I questioned myself whether makers of mini-laptop understand customers’ needs and wants. In order to find out how well they are performing marketing the product, I tried very hard to use my best knowledge to analyze their marketing plan according to Marketing Mix (4 P’s: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion)
Product: Mini-laptop
Even though the technology involved manufacturing one of mini-sized laptop is not the newest, the makers are seemed trying to create value by better functionality with cooler design. Previously, the makers tried to make value by providing mini-laptop with lower price with less performance targeting relatively poor customers. However, there are trying to simplify the functions, but stay “affordable” targeting affluent people who have plenty margin to pay the cost to get extra benefit.
Price: Undecided, approximately 650 dollars.
According to the article, the earning from the Eee PC was 8% or 9% of the Asustek’s earning that year. That means customers believe the product is worthy to give up as much opportunity cost. It also means that buyers think they would get enough benefit out of the product to give up the next best thing they could do with 650 dollars.
Place: Affluent USA, Japan, and other developed world.
The definition described in the textbook by the term “place” is “all the activities necessary to get the product to the right customer when that customer wants it.” Unfortunately, the exact system of supply chain management, or where and how activities of sailing are taking place is not stated in the article. However, it states that it is going to be global. Something about going global is that understanding customers is even more difficult and critical. For example, Eee PC, in my opinion, will have some additional difficulties to look attractive in Korea. One of the reasons I can guess is that lots of PSPs, Nintendos, and even multi-functional electric dictionaries are available for relatively cheap prices. The other reason might be the large quantities of programs and files required to run Internet, thanks to being World’s IT leading country.
Promotion: Restating the definition from the book, promotion is communication by a marketer that informs, persuades, and reminds potential buyers about a product or service to influence their opinions or elicit a response. These are the pictures of the Eee PC available at Asustek’s homepage. There was a decent explanation about the product and looked attractive. An accurate analyze could not be made because both it is not advertised in Korea, and stated in the article.
B2B and B2C marketing: One thing very important factor about the product that drew my attention was Intel. Asustek is selling the product to customers (Business to Consumers marketing) as well as buying technology from Intel (Business to Business marketing). According to the article, readers can see that Intel is playing an important role in producing and developing the product. I could see how one organization could help the other producer and be benefited by cooperating.
Last point I would like to review by reading this article is the process how economy finds equilibrium, or in this case, how Asustek brings other computer manufacturers to jump into the mini-laptop market. I remember the expression, “Exploit the Opportunity”. After Asustek showed how mini-laptop delivers a profit to the company, others seem to follow the example; they want to make themselves some profits as well.
After I looked closely at the marketing involved in selling Eee PC and Asustek, it seems little bit clearer how careful marketer has to be to decide all 4 P’s. I still can’t answer to the fundamental question, “Will Eee PC really sell?”, but I would like to see furthermore how it will do in the market in the future.