20700457_DongSoo Joseph Rhee Entry 3

What Makes them so special ?

There are many frontier companies for different kinds of industries.
There is IKEA for DIY furnitures, Amozon for online book store, Canon for Camera, and
there is Apple.
I want to take a look at Apple.
What makes them so special and unique ?
Mac (brand name for Apple computer), does not occupy much of the market.
However, when people think of Mac, they consider it as something they really
want and admire.
What makes people to think that way.
Their first strength is their unique design.
Apple always come up with unique design, something that people have never seen.
Mac mini looks like a external HDD drive, Imac took an integrated type computer,
which has main unit and the LCD monitor in a same device, Macbook has a totally
different design with other laptops. Macbook air which is released recently, is thinner
than any other laptops I've ever seen.

Mac Book Air

People get attracted by those incredible design.
Second strength is "INNOVATION and CREATIVITY".
Apple come up with something creative all the time.
IPhone (Smart Phone release from Apple) took a third place in the world smartphone market,
and second place in the U.S market. Iphone come up with those fun and innovative functions
such as large touchscreen, applications and so on.
When everybody empathized large screen and large data storage, Apple released Ipod shuffle
which has no screen, simple interface, and relatively small storage, with extremley small
size and cheap price.

IPOD shuffle, size of thumb.

That is why people keep looking for Apple's products, even with a relatively high price.
When Apple tries something, people look forward to their new products, they get excited to see what Apple will try this time. Innovation is what make them special.

Entry3_20700347

Mom’s Kitchen in Handong

Until just recently, there had been a restaurant named ‘Boon-sik-dang’ in Handong University, but there is a ‘Mom’s kitchen’ for the same place. Students have various opinions about ‘Mom’s kitchen’. Some opinions are positive and other opinions are negative.
At present, Mom’s kitchen has several foods for a meal and offers buffet lunch and dinner. The price of a meal is 3,500won. Also, there is a café which sells many kinds of coffee, several tea, some fruits, cookies, and muffins in a restaurant. Mom’s kitchen is open from 7:30 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.
I think that Mom’s kitchen has good points and bad points, so it requires a detailed analysis using SWOT.
Strength – I visited Mom’s kitchen several times, and I felt that ingredients of foods are very fresh especially the vegetables each time. This thought is shared by many people in Handong. Also Foods tastes so good, so a lot of people satisfied with the foods. In addition, a menu is different everyday, so anyone who doesn’t like a menu of Students’ restaurant and Hyo-am restaurant can enjoy the various foods. Plus, it is possible for customers to refill foods, so anyone who likes to eat foods more can eat more.
Weakness – In former days, ‘Boon-sik-dang’ was open all days, so many people could go to the restaurant on weekends if they want. However, Mom’s kitchen is not open on weekends, so if you intend to eat a meal at Students’ restaurant on weekends, you should wait for an entrance for a long time. Also, many people who don’t like Mom’s kitchen are missing ‘Boon-sik-dang’, because it was possible to eat some foods at cheap price at that place. For example, ‘Ramen’ was 1,300won, and ‘Ddok-man-doo-kook’ was 2,000won, and other foods’ price was very cheap. Furthermore, dishes and bowls are so heavy, because they are not made of plastic, so when people dish up, they feel uncomfortable.
Opportunity – There are so many foreigners in Handong, but Korean foods are mostly offered to customers at Students’ restaurant and Hyo-am restaurant’s foods are expensive than other restaurants in Handong. Therefore if Mom’s kitchen takes advantage of their own system which admits change of a menu, they could receive more customers than now. Also, Mom’s kitchen has a café in it, so it can sell many kinds of drinks to customers who think that going to the ‘?’ café is very annoying to them.
Threats – Recently, the staff of Mom’s kitchen was started to distribute some foods, because many people leaved foods which they dished up. But, this point makes worse the advantage of this restaurant, and if this situation continues, Mom’s kitchen would become like Students’ restaurant that offers certain amounts of foods.
In this way, Mom’s kitchen has many nice points and problems to solve, so it should make an effort to satisfy many people in Handong.
A lot of people in Handong including me are missing foods that made by their mom, so I hope that Mom’s kitchen would be loved by people of Handong for a long time.

20700347

Resources : http://hisnet.handong.edu/noticeboard/viewarticle.asp?num=14519&ID=1&page=1&view=1&splitPage=1&search=mom&option=title

Entry3_20400495

Finding the Perfect Location


When opening a store what do you think the most important factor to success? This article tells you that location is one of the critical factors in opening or expanding your vendor.
When Tony Calamunci, the president of Johnny’s Lunch Franchise, was 12, he dreamed to make his family’s Jamestown restaurant into a nationwide franchise. However, he didn’t hurry because he wanted it to do right. It took more than a quarter century to realize his dream. Transforming a small-town hot dog joint into a national franchise takes an extraordinary amount of planning and strategy. To operate all these works, Calalmunci hired experts to help his dream come true.

His first step in the expansion plan was contracting a professional management and a location research consultancy that conducted in-depth interviews with more than 600 patrons of the original Johnny’s Lunch and used the data to create a target customer profile. John Orton, the vise-president in charge for real estate for Johnny’s lunch, says “We need density within the first-mile radius of our locations because our primary day part is the lunch period.” Devon Wolfe, a managing director at Mapinfo, suggests for entrepreneurs to think about the following questions. Who is your customer? Who else is out there that you’re competing with? What kind of budget do you have for marketing? What does your business plan say? Before expanding your business you should answer these questions and do the math.

One of the most important parts Tony had considered was picking appropriate neighborhood demographics. He needed to target the right costumers. Even when you’ve chosen the right demographic space, you have to examine your competion and your timing. ” Selecting suburbs won’t be a good choice because there aren’t many people during the lunch period.
He also considered his neighboring vendors. Orton says “If you’re in a center with Leann’s Nails, Joe’s Tax Service, and Omar’s Feed Supply, it creates a different perception in customers’ mind than if you’re next to Starbucks, Panera and Chipotle.” In other words, big brands can make good neighbors.

All of these jobs are done by experts paid a lot of money, but don’t be frustrated though you can’t afford to hire these experts. You can use the internet simply searching the terms like ‘business demographics’ There are a number of venders that have indexes that will match up with your concept. So don’t dive for the dartboard when selecting sites because changing your stores location several times could kill your business.

Reverence : http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/mar2008/sb20080324_098559.htm?chan=smallbiz_smallbiz+index+page_top+small+business+stories

Entry 3_20500687

In Japan, Soft Drinks to Cure Any Ailment

“Wellbeing,” this word has emerged in Korea just few years ago. People tend to buy goods especially food based on high quality containing no harmful ingredients to human. Even though the prices of the products are higher than others, people are willing to pay more money to get cleaner, safer, and more nutritive products.

This article talks about impacts of Japanese soft drinks to Japanese consumers. Since this issue has floated on the surface catching everyone’s interests, I also got excited to read and analyze the article. In Japan, among an aging population that has lost interest in sweet, fizzy drinks, healthy tonics have become an elixir for Japanese beverage makers. They created new products such as teas, a green tea, vitamin drinks that offer far more than simple refreshment, those offer health benefits. One analyst said that Japanese are addicted to healthy drinks. Thus it makes sense that drink makers can also charge a little more for products that contain less fat, fewer calories, or offer weight-loss advantages.

I personally had health problems recently caused by high amount of carbonated beverage and sweet drinks. One of my teeth got so weak that is slightly broken. Besides, my inner organs also got affected by those drinks. I decided not to drink these kinds of beverage but instead drink more water and teas. I think Japanese beverage industries face a meaningful problem which motivates them to create new products. It helps them approach to consumers more considerably dealing with their health. In addition, understanding the tastes of consumers and national trend, aging population, is very important to create new items satisfying demanding consumers quickly. In a sense of this idea, Japan in general does a good job compare to many other companies in other countries.

Entry-3_20700443

SAN-FRANCISCO - Google has lost its second high-profile executive to Facebook in a month, with the departure of its head of social media Ethan Beard.

Right after Sheryl Sandberg who left Google in early March and joined Facebook, where he became chief operating officer, Mr. Beard also leaving Google and joins the same company as a director of business development.
While being in Google Beard headed up business development at MTV and VH1, and also worked at high tech investments firms Silicon Alley Venture Partners and Fountainhead Capital.
As the popularity of Facebook grows up, and it becomes the fastest growing social media website, to be hired to that corporation people need to have high professional skills and who already was involved in that kind of works. That is why before hiring people form Google, Beard and Sandberg, Facebook looked through a number of other high profile hires, including Gideon Yu, who is ex chief financial officer at Google's YouTube, and now chief financial officer at Facebook.

Facebook is a social network website which was first founded on February 4, 2004, by 23 year old Mark Zuckerberg. It is a privately hold company. It generates revenue from advertising, such as banner ads. It is valued at $15bn and nowadays more than 500staff are working for them.
The free-access website allows users to connect to several networks and also easily to connect with people in the same network. Through Facebook people can find their co-workers, classmates, groupmates, there's also a chance to find a person with whom they lost connection long long ago. The website has more than 64 million active users worldwide.
In my opinion, Facebook tries to meet its users needs successfully, because almost every week there are new applications and changes, which makes Facebook more fun, and easy to use. I bet that many people whenever they log in their internet they firstly open Facebook to check news that are happening on their profile. I use Facebook as well and very pleased of using it, because it allows me to keep in touch with many people who are far from me.

brandrepublic.com/news
en.wikipedia.org

#3 Entry / 20500297

The Seven Secrets of Inspiring Leaders*


As a business student, I have been mostly interested in leadership and business communication. There are lots of business strategies we can use, but I always believe that leadership and communication are the basics that lead your business to succeed.

Have you heard of book called 'Fire them up'? This book is written by Carmine Gallo, revealing techniques common to the leaders who best know how to INSPIRE their workers, investors, and customers. Inspiring others is one of important roles in marketing, I guess, because it gives you a motive and special meaning. Carmine Gallo has been interviewing people in high position, entrepreneurs, and educators who have a capacity of selling their vision, values, and even themselves and found 7 communications secrets we can adopt in our own communications with others. I want to briefly go over these 7 secrets with you guys, and attach the video file. (I liked it when he clearly differentiates 'vision' from 'goal.')

FIRST, demonstrate enthusiasm—"constantly." Leaders should have passion. Once you find your passion, you need to make it apparent to everyone you work with. Demonstrating enthusiasm is so infectious that it can convince others. It's the beginning of success.

SECOND, articulate a compelling course of action. It means that leaders should be specific, consistent, and memorable vision. Powerful vision is short (less than 10 words or 10), but explains how the world will be changed if your products or service succeeds. Gallo explains more about this in video with an example, emphasizing that the power of vision set everything in action.

THIRD, sell the benefit. "Always remember, it's not about you, it's about them." said Gallo. You mustn't make your listeners guess. Be ready to answer the questions they have and give them what they need in your speech, presentation, or any situation where persuasion takes place.

FOURTH, tell more stories. This one is pretty interesting. Remember Disney land? Why are the characters of Disney are familiar to every one of us? Because they have a story! It goes same with business communication. Telling interesting and memorable stories is a good way to keep your relationship with others and make them remember you in a special way.

FIFTH, invite participation. In order to motivate young employees, this can be a good idea to use. Today's managers let their employees join the process of building the company or service. 'Incorporation' is critical in today's business work.

SIXTH, reinforce an optimistic outlook. You know why, right? Positive leaders brings positive results. (Not always, though.) Robert Noyce, the co-founder of Intel INTC, said, "Optimism is an essential ingredient of innovation. How else can the individual favor change over security?" (quoted) Speaking positive words and having positive attitude make others optimistic.

LASTLY, encourage potential. Inspiring leaders 'invest' in their employees emotionally. They see the hidden potential and take it out by praising them. Praise is easy and fast way of maintaining your connection with others. Employees doubt will be reduced and their spirits will soar when you give them genuine praise.

+++

'Inspiriation' is an inspiring word to me. Business is about people and relationship. Inspiring others makes you a person that others want to be with. We need to treat our best employees that way we expect those employees to treat our customers, which means that in order to make your business successful, you should support, reward, and promote people working with you. Personally, relationship with others is one of difficult problems I haven't solved yet. It's been hard and tough and eventually I realized that I used to be a negative person. The words and languages I speak and say were negative. I rarely praise others, and I have preferred working alone to working with other members. I've already found myself empty inside, but have been afraid of change. As a person who feels free to be a 'follower', being a leader is not a easy thing for me. This article tells me that now is the time to face and change myself. As I have been inspired by people around me, I want to inspire others. I know 'how' now!

Here's the video I want to attach. Carmine Gallo explains about the leaders inspiring others and tells you what kind of vision leaders should have. Enjoy. :)





Reference: http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/oct2007/sb20071010_093227.htm

* #3 Entry by 20500297

20700443 Entry-2

Sorry, I forgot about putting my ID ^^ (Puma Ball)

20700457 DongSoo Joseph Rhee, Journal Entry No.2

http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/jan2008/id2008014_152649.htm?chan=innovation_branding_brand+strategy

This article is about copying machine company, name Xerox. I don't think anybody didn't hear about the company "Xerox". Everybody knows that Xerox makes copy machines.
What comes to your mind, when you think of the word "Xerox"? In my case, COPY, that is only thing that pop up into my head. Xerox's image reminds people of something that is hard and
business-related copymachine. This article is containing contents about Xerox; trying to makeover their brand image.

To get a brand makeover, what they first did was to change their logo. Logo is one of the important elements that form an image of coorperation. The old logo was wordmark "XEROX" written in capital word. Old logo was made impression of hard and traditional company. It was benefit for Xerox for a long period of time, but itz becoming baricate between them and customers. So they made a new logo with globe art clip on it. Xerox are hoping new logo makes their image more approchable. Looking at Xerox's new logo, it reminds me of Xbox from Microsoft.Maybe it might bring down the image of nobility and luxuriness, it will help to loose the hard image they have now.

This is a old logo of xerox, designed in the 1960s by Chermayeff & Geismar, was deemed inappropriate for the Internet age.

The new identity, created by Interbrand, comprises a wordmark and sphere logo.

Xerox wanted to include these atributes to their image; innovation, forward thinking, flexibility, and enterprise. Xerox did a lot of reserches. During 18 months of research, the result showed that people already made strong connections between the brand and words such as "dependable, taditional, and established." Its the company's challange to reinforce those images, while trying to improve other things too.

Reading this article, I once was reminded "how important it is to makea right image that I or the company want." I know a lot of companies which changed their logo, or concept of their logo, image, title, and even signboards. The biggest companies in Korea, Samsung and LG changed their logo, and LG even changed their company name once. It is incredibly important to have an image that fits that era, and the needs of the companies. I believe it is becoming even more important, because the world is spining fast and everything is changing so fastly, and the customer's needs are changing along with those things. Creating a brand image that everybody want isthe huge point in marketing and business.

Puma's Crazy Chemistry Ball

Recently Puma released it's d3o ball, and firstly it was showed up to the public during Olympics in 2006. It introduced itself as a safety lining for the Spyder skiing suits and later the same year it became PopSci's Best of What's New Award. It's known as the first world's "intelligent" ball.
What makes this ball so special? Everything is what inside of that ball, it was made by inserting a layer of the material between a soccer ball's outer casing and bladder, so the ball remains soft during dribbling but becomes more elastic on impact, the material itself is so sensitive, than when aff According to the test at Sheffield Hallam University it showed that this ball is quicker than previous versions.

This version of Puma ball will be used by Puma national teams including World Champions Italy and Euro 2008.

What about the trend Puma itself? The trend itself comes from early early ages, in spite of all the competitors which it has, Puma still remains as one of the influential trends in a global market. By the way, Puma in Korea is very famous and considers as a firm trend. And Puma doesn't stop with its innovations, it goes further, one of the reason is that because it has their constant customers who want and search for something special from that trend.

The ones who could have chance to observe that ball say that Puma ball looks like similar to other top balls. However, the price stays the same which is around $100. How it will be promoted and have real customers we could observe only after it goes to the market...

20400495 Entry 2

Quality over Green: Nike's New Air Jordan



This article is about the Nike’s new released basket ball shoes, Jordan 23, which is considered as a green product. Explained by the article, green product is a product which tries to use eco-friendly or recycled material and eliminate adhesives which can harm our environment. Nike has produced several green products before Jordan 23, but it didn’t appeal a lot to costumers. The customers seemed to be careless whether their shoes are eco-friendly or not. Their priority seemed to be the performance of the shoes instead. Instead of making a different product line for green products (which eventually failed), Nike applied this method to existing lines such as Jordan series which is recognize as a high performance shoes.


Before I read this article I saw a shocking documentary program broadcast in BBC. It was about the polar bear in the North Pole suffering from global warming. Because of the Green house effect, the polar bears are having a hard time hunting seals of other preys. Usually during the winter the sea waters are frozen so that the polar bears are able to hunt there games on the glaciers. But recently, because of the green house effect, the sea water does not freeze. This makes the Polar bears to swim to search frozen ice bergs where seals come to rest. Because frozen sea water areas are getting so scarce, they waste their energy while mobilizing, which makes them get exhausted before hunting. They die in front of their preys. I didn’t realize the heaviness of the problem before watching this program.

As the Global warming is growing faster, the green product seems to be a clever solution. But what if the green products don’t appeal to consumers? What if the extra effort to produce green products is ignored? To avoid this tragedy, we need to be smart like Nike. They have experienced failure with their early green products which didn’t attract the consumers. But now, applying this to the best sellers such as Air Jordan series, Nike is not only helping the earth to cool down but also gaining better brand image and better profit. Before we urge people to be aware of the global warming, we should think about a easy way for people to get involved to fight against the global warming.

Resourses : http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/jan2008/id20080125_828346.htm

20500687_Entry 2

Louis Vuitton’s Life of Luxury

This article deals with LVMH’s culture and how to market the global growth of a prestige brand. Before I make any comment about this article, I researched what LVMH is. LVMH is a French holding company and one of the world’s largest luxury goods conglomerates according to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. I always wonder how these luxury brands survive with that extremely high price because I think there are not many demands considering consumers’ interests and buying abilities. However Louis Vuitton achieved total sales for 2006 increase nearly 10% from the previous year, to $20 billion. Isn’t it amazing?

Louis Vuitton brand in China, India, and Japan?

The Louis Vuitton brand opened in China in 1992. In the beginning, there were doubts whether this brand survives in China or not since Chinese first didn’t understand luxury. However, Yves Carcell, Chairman and chief executive officer of Louis Vuitton had strong confidence to penetrate the Chinese market. They kept trying to approach to developing the market and never compromising with any operational obstacles, and manage every aspect of the business. Eventually, Louis Vuitton became the most successful luxury brand in China. Besides China, Louis Vuitton is looking forward to settle their brand in India since Indian market has high potential to be developed and their plan of volume of business is proportionally larger than when they did in China. In Japan, on the other hand, the luxury customers are very demanding and they like to see the details. Japanese customers inspire Louis Vuitton to progress to continually improve.

Marketing Strategy

Louis Vuitton has strong belief that customers’ in-store experience is almost as important as the quality of product itself. This is a new trend in luxury retail. The brand’s prestige is maintained mostly by famous fashion designer such as Marc Jacobs and the contemporary artist Takashi Murakami. When Louis Vuitton releases the newest design, they limit the volume of products. This strategy makes the brand unique and more luxurious. It implies customers that only few luxurious people can buy the product. However, Louis Vuitton plans on maintaining its prestige by making traditional suitcases in the same way as in the 19th century. That way they can pursue creativity and respect for quality at the same time and keep their name value and brand’s prestige high.

Louis Vuitton’s strategy is well known. They have shown many successes as if the representative among many luxury brands. Louis Vuitton, not only their collaborated design by famous fashion designer, but also their customer value when they refer customers’ feedbacks and opinions proactively to fulfill their satisfaction, I think Louis Vuitton surely has strong power to keep their prestige of brand firm.

article #2_20700347 Kang-Min Song

Pucca, the Hope of Korean Character Market

Mickey mouse, Pooh, Hello kitty… There are so many lovely characters in the world around us, but a peculiar character has been loved by a lot of consumers since a few years ago. That character’s name is “Pucca”. Frankly speaking, Pucca who wears conspicuous red clothes and is a daughter of Chinese food restaurant’s owner has not been loved so much in Korea, but it is getting into public favor in abroad.

According to the article, various products about Pucca are being sold at many stores and Pucca’s popularity is higher than ‘Hello kitty’ in Paris. Someone might think that the price of the goods featuring Pucca might be cheaper than other ones, but it is not true. The secret of Pucca’s popularity is that it just has big attractiveness itself.

In fact, I think that Pucca’s success is very uncommon and unconventional case in Korea, because it became popular in itself earlier than an animation, and an on-line game. In this point, it has a point of sameness with ‘Hello kitty’, because both are loved by many people, although stories about both characters are nearly unknown to consumers.

As a matter of course, Pucca’s success is so happy news in Korea for the present, but if Pucca is content with its present stand, its big hit would be difficult in the future. So it needs to enhance the value of itself through various trials. Disney’s characters have been enjoyed a high lever of popularity steadily all over the world through nice transformations. Pucca needs to let Disney’s example be a lesson to it, then it could show fresh features to a crowd of people. For instance, animations and games would be a very effective way to advertise Pucca.

Furthermore, if Pucca’s distinction that is a girl and has an oriental peculiarity is used very well, it gives an impression of freshness to consumers who got accustomed to beautiful characters.

In my opinion, Pucca gave a hope to Korean character market, because there is no case that Korean character hits public taste. Up to now, some characters such as Dooly, and Jolla-man had good popularity in a domestic market, but those didn’t succeed. So Pucca could be a nice model in Korea, if marketing for it is passionate. For this, Pucca has to improve several problems.

First of all, many products about Pucca are little expensive than other characters at this time. If goods’ price is put down, it would be more pervasive across the Supply chain than before.

Next, the number of countries that sell the products about Pucca is not so numerous, so more countries are needed to export Pucca. If number of countries that sell the goods about Pucca is increase more and more, Vooz, the company which invent Pucca, could expands firm’s Global presence.

Last but not least, Pucca need to collect plenty of information about places to sell the products, and consumers’ taste. Each county has their own culture, so information about countries and consumers’ taste is very useful for marketing.

As stated above, Pucca has not only many good points but also problems awaiting solutions. Therefore, Pucca should endeavor to improve its value. I hope that Pucca becomes a famous character like Mickey mouse all over the world sooner or later.

20700347 Kang-Min Song

Resources : http://www.hani.co.kr/arti/international/europe/86006.html
http://newslink.media.daum.net/news/20080222162411605

#2 Entry / 20500297

"Five words to NEVER use in AD"

Hi, Everyone. :) The second article I want to share with you guys is about 'advertising'. Advertising is not ALL about marketing, but we surely know that it takes an important role in marketing.

Think of advertising phrases for a moment. What kind of words comes to your mind? 'Free', 'easy', 'guarantee', 'no limitation', 'simple', 'save', etc. There would be tons of words used in advertisement. Why do people choose these words? They probably believe that they have sort of impacts on customers and attract customers' interest. Don't you and I like the products that are 'simple' and 'easy'?

In that content, the title of this article, 'Five words to never use in Ad', attracts my interest. I believe that this is quite helpful and useful information for us as we will work on selling project as a group. Let's go through with the words we'd better not to use when we advertise our product and remember them. (I paraphrase the article, so if you want, you can read the original article on; http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/jun2006/sb20060607_197154.htm?chan=search by Steve McKee)

1. QUALITY
The article says that the word 'quality' is the most overused word in advertising. What the author points out is that 'every product worth buying is a quality product.' So as a marketer, you actually do not have to emphasize the quality of the product too much. Used too often, now the word 'quality' can't appeal to the customer.

2. VALUE
The reason why the word 'value' has been ruined by overuse is because value depends on the customer. Value, same with quality', is in the eye of the beholder, and every product that buyers pay money for has its own value. Therefore, - interestingly - "we provide the best value" is completely meaningless.

3. SERVICE
'We promise you the best service' is actually funny, the author says, because 'the companies that make the claim of good service the mos tend to be those that deliever it the least.' I don't get his point here, but I guess it sounds like providing good service itself doesn't mean that it offers something speical and different from other companies. It's just the way it should be.

4. CARING
This one is interesting. Those companies saying "we care more" are not actually selling tangible products. Plus, how can they prove that they care more than their competitors? This word is not only ruined by overuse, but also they're based on 'variables' simply because people can't be the same. Some people can be satisfied with a certain product, while others never do. That's the main reason why the words, 'quality', 'value', 'service', and 'caring', can hardly be the standard of distinguishing products.

5. INTEGRITY
Why the word 'integrity' should not be used in ad.? Every company should have integtiry! They do not neccessarily advertise that they have integrity. If they do, it means either that they are just trying to cover up their lack of integrity, or that they are implying they are better than their competitors, which is impolite.

* I agree with some parts of the article, but not all. However, in a way I got a lesson from it. Advertising something too obvious or too reasonably is of little appeal to customers. What you need to advertise is something that can differentiate your product from other companies. You can't satisfy every single customer, but at least you need to think of the UNIQUE way of giving impression to the customers by advertising.

Remember that just because you sell it, it doesn't mean that people will buy it, as the author says.

_ 20500297 * Entry 2

20700457 DongSoo Rhee Joseph Rhee

What makes Samsung the top brand

http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/mar2008/gb20080313_758981.htm?chan=technology_technology+index+page_top+stories

This article is about Samsung
being top company in TVs.
It describes how Samsung got
up to the top of the indurtry.
Especially they explaned it in
a perspective of company worker,
and manager.

As I follow the article, one small
piece of thought came up on my mind.
"What kind of marketing strategy did
they use to achieve such a big success"
I thought about the materials that we
talked about at the class.
The word "perceived value" poped up in my head.

Marketing is important in organization, becuase of this perceived value.

Services of every organizations and companies have value.
This value is classified into two; first one is real value, and the other one is perceived value.
Real value is decided by the actual products. However perceived value is given
by how people think of one's company.
Marketing helps to increase this perceived value which is unlimitted.

Then, how Samsung increased this value ?
Samsung is using many different strategy over the whole world.
They are using different methods to make people to believe
Samsung is familliar with their country and people.

For example, in Russia, Samsung made "Samsung Tolstoi literary award".
Through this event, Samsung made an company image that "Samsung is
familliar with Russia, and respect Russian"


In my opinion, one of the most important marketing strategy is "귀족 Marketing".
This is korean word that describes the marketing method, which is targetting
rich people.

Samsung has been making an image of "high quality product".
They put an extra effort on a design matter, and kept showing the TV commercials
that is something noble and loyal.

By all these strategies, Samsung becames No. 1 in the global TV market.
Market researcher "Display Search" showes that Samsung shares 13.6% of overall

global TV Market.

Kang-Min Song_20700347

How Green is a Mini?
(Newsweek)

In the article, “How Green is a Mini?”, Jason Overdorf and Fred Guterl claim that Nano’s advent is not good for environment. Because there is abundant evidence that Tata’s Nano has a harmful effect on the environment in environmentalists’ opinion.

Above all, because Nano’s price is worth that of Notebook computer, so many people might purchase Nano in the future and then it will exerts a bad influence upon the environment. If the number of new drivers is on the increase suddenly in India, atmospheric contamination by exhaust gases from automobiles would be serious. Also, as carbon dioxide emissions are increase, green house effect would be serious too.

I think that Tata’s Nano has merits and demerits. First of all, Nano’s price is very low, so many people have purchasing power of Nano. This good point has an beneficial effect on the expands firm’s global presence, because Nano’s supply has been an issue. And its low price will exerts a favorable influence upon Nano’s market share. Also, if a lot of people buy a Nano, Nano will make life easier. In addition, because the price of oil has gone up, small car is efficient. Nano is a high-mileage car, so it is not bad for consumers.

In my opinion, however, Nano might be dangerous to driver, because Nano’s main manufactured material is plastic. Although Nano is not proved that its safety is low yet, its manufacturing method twrings a person's withers. India has a population of nearly 1,200 million, so if too many consumers purchase Nano, car accidents will arise in India. In addion, Nano’s advent incites to a invention of small car. The production of small cheap car has already prompted much research. So it might has a bad effect on environment all over the world.

In conclusion, for all that Tata’s Nano has many good points, there is much room for improvement, and it could be failure in many ways, especially environmentally. Therefore, Tata must try to solve the problem of Nano.

20700347 Kang-Min Song

Resource : http://www.newsweek.com/id/91380

Sang-Hee Hong_20500687

When Your Ad Tactics Don’t Fit Your "Brand"

Do you like the sub sandwitch? Which brand do you like the most? When I was in America, there were many different sub sandwitch stores like the Subways and the Quizno's. It was easy to see the commercials of these sandwitch stores on TV.

This article is about the commercial or so called ad tactics and its impacts to the consumers. Among many seires of commercials of Quizno's, the spongmonkey commercial brought the negative issue. It intends to appeal consumers that Quiznos rats make people hungry. They used spongmonkeys’ wagon to hitch its brand because the commercials apparently tested well in focus groups. Besides, they thought it is so called “tactic” to approach many Quiznos manias.

However, Quizno’s became infamous after this spongmonkeys commercial. Although it worked for attention-getting, there were negative impacts from children consumers. They got scared by the image of spongmonkeys and the spots on the commercial. Eventually, the commercial made children crying and their parents’ complaint was followed right away.

I read the part of promotion and it 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. In addition to this complaint, one person on YouTube even wrote a comment, “As much as I love this commercial (which I do… it’s hilarious!), I don’t ever want to eat at Quizno’s. Eew.” Since Quiznos sells food products including subs and salads, it could be overwhelmed by using spongmonkey to deliver the ads. The commercial indeed left disgusting impression.

I agreed with the writer of this article that marketing isn’t just about creating impressions or getting attention. We need to be careful when we make ads or commercial considering relevancy within the surroundings. Just like the dairy industry’s “Got Milk” ad campaign, which has created high levels of awareness about the benefit of drinking milk and using celebrities like Hilary Duff, Quiznos should shift the idea of promotion through ads or TV commercial to appeal Quiznos delicious subs. Furthermore, delivering fun and delicious images of Quizno’s subs, it will bring not only benefits for Quizno’s but also for other subs restaurants.

Written by 20500687 Hong, Sang-hee

Original Article Address:
http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/mar2008/sb2008036_428831.htm?chan=smallbiz_smallbiz+index+page_top+small+business+stories

Jenya Lee_20700443

4Ps of LG Prada

LG corp. was first established in 1947, and during those formative years, the company emphasized the principle of creating harmony between each other. There's a rapid growth period in the 1970s, LG's mostly concentrated on unity, a pioneering spirit, and research and development. LG further developed plastics, convenience goods, and chemicals, after 1983 re-entered the cosmetics industry, expanding its chemical business. LG focused on four business areas in the 1990s: chemicals/energy, lectronics/information/communications, financing, and services. The company began its efforts to lead the digital age into the new millennium. Nowadays the company became one of the leading corporation in Korea, and in the world. Each year LG corp. offers its customers more and more innovations, and just recently it offered a new touch screen mobile to a wide auditory, the name of that innovation is LG Prada. How LG Prada is going to beat another innovation of the history which is Apple iPhone?

Product: LG Prada is a real breakthrough in the industry, as it is a unique, sophisticated and elegant mobile phone with the first complete advanced touch interface. These two brand companies LG and Prada have worked closely together on every aspect of the product, so it has the quality of Prada design with the trademark technological innovation of LG mobile.

Price: The cost of that elegant and stylish phone is about $778 or 600 euro, the price is enough high, but who knows, probably, two brand names like LG and Prada will be attracted by those who are running after fashion and all these loud names...

Place: As that mobile is a new edition, it appears not in every store and even country. However, that kind of innovation can hit mobile shops and stores in UK, Germany, Italy, France, and parts of Asia, because most people from those sides are addicted to luxury stuff like LG Prada mobile.

Promotion: Actually, only the name of that mobile makes a great stylish sound, LG Prada. As LG's mostly concentrated on its customers, i think, they have their own constant auditory who always expects something new and valuable from that company. If LG and Prada did and do their best for their customers, then success is going to have place.
As I think, the idea of combining two brand names was great, because now customers can analyze how their favorites can work and produce in another combination.

resources based on:
http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/18/lgs-ke850-prada-official-iphone-says-wha/
http://www.lg.net/index.jsp

HeeSub Lee_20400495

You get the kids off to school, she’ll pack the lunch!
(Washington post)

For those dual-income and time-straved parents, making lunch every morning is big a deal. To help these parents, Monica Tomasso founded Health e-Lunch Kids. Inc, which makes completely healthy lunch and delivers directly to the kid’s school. The lunch they are providing are low-suger, low-fat and preservative-free boxed so that the parents no longer have to worry about their children’s lunch.

Monica Tomasso came up with this idea while working at Exxonmobil in Fairfax, where she’d spent 13 years in marketing, financial analysis and business development. She heard her colleagues complaining about the daily duty, making their offspring’s lunch everyday. Looking to leave the corporate world, she used her business background, self-taught nutrition know-how and some financial help from her father to create Health e-Lunch Kids.

Employees of a Springfield catering company prepare the meals each evening, and a courier service delivers them the next morning. The company typically delivers about 400 meals to 15 to 25 schools each weekday. She tries to expand her business in that area which includes Fairfax and Montgomery counties, but the local public schools have rejected the idea because they say her company would siphon off cafeteria business.

After reading this article, I thought we could actually try this in Handong. Since so many students are willing to eat at the cafeteria using their limited time, the school’s cafeteria is always crowded and you have to wait more than ten minutes wasting your precious lunch time. If it’s possible to found a Health e-Lunch company in Handong, we can accept orders though internet, prepare the ordered meal before lunch time and deliver it to each student’s classroom. This will prevent the outrageous chaos happening every lunch time.

YouSun Baek_20500297

What is so special with that APPLE?

During the last winter vacation, I went to Silicon Valley for a short-term internship program taken place in Northwestern Polytechnic University located in Fremont, CA. Fortunately, we got a chance to go to Sanfrancisco for Macworld Conference, which was mostly about Apple's new laptop, MacBook Air. People were just amazed by the size and the weight of the laptop. (You may see the picture on the left side.)

Yes, I found it cool, too, but not as surprised as other people there. I was like 'Hey, my laptop, the one of SONY, is as light as MacAir! Why are you guys so crazy about Apple?'

At that moment, one thing popped up in my head. Wherever I visited while staying in CA, I saw most university students either using or carrying laptops produced by Apple. No matter how heavy is, and no matter how big it is, they seemed so familiar with this special brand, Apple. I wondered, 'Why Apple?'

In this content, as I am sitting here looking for some article related to marketing, the very first thing that drew my attention was the articles and reviews about MacBook Air.
Don't you want to know what makes Apple special with this thin, shiny laptop?

You probably already know about MacBook series. MacBook Air is the new laptop from Apple, as you see. It is an incredibly 'slim package', as the article explains, with a 13.1-in. display, a full-size keyboard, and decent processing power. It is simple, yet enough. And YES, IT IS THIN! This is one of the aspects that makes MacBook different from other laptops. The name, MacBook 'AIR' appeals to customers, it is a well-chosen name that draws people's attention and interests. Naming the product can be the very significant step of marketing process, because that creates the first image of the certain product. The starting price of this product is $1,799, which is a little bit expensive for users I think. My laptop from SONY, costs almost $1,500 and it has CD/DVD driver, while MacBook Air doesn't. (In Korea, it is 1,589,000 won.)

There ARE negative opinions of MacBook Air. As I just mentioned above, it doesn't have CD/DVD driver, which means that you should buy it separately. The battery lasts for 5 hours on a charge, but people really want more because MacBook Air is mostly about 'portability.'
However, with all limitations of MacBook Air, people still prefer Apple. Why?
"Apple gives you the special VALUE!"

Having portable laptop, (produced by Apple!) makes you feel like you are advanced.
Carrying that newest produced laptop (with COOL design and the thickness), you feel like you have something very special that others can hardly get!
As long as it gives you the 'meaning', it becomes precious.
That's what good marketing is about. Doesn't this make sense to you?


- You can get more information about MacBook Air with the original artivle on; http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_06/b4070000916517.htm?chan=search
"MacBook Air: A Little Too Pretty?" by Stephen H. Willstrom