Where will life take you? September 23, 2008

Yeah, I know I know…it’s been months since my last update on this blog!!

But the things is, in this busy world full of attractions, full of colourful promotions, it’s hard to find something that’s really touching and resonating to the inner needs of people.

So my apologies that I didn’t have much to share in the past few months.

Nothing really touched me…until I saw this LV TV commercial.

What is a journey?
A journey is not a trip. It’s not a vacation.
It’s a process. A discovery.
It’s a process of self-discovery.
A journey brings us face to face, with ourselves.
A journey shows us not only the world, but how we fit in it.
Does the person create the journey
Or does the journey create the person?
The journey is life itself.
Where will life take you?
Louis Vuitton

The pictures are poetic and the guitar theme is haunting. Louis Vuitton made himself an expert in creating luggage after his 400km journey on foot. What can you discover in yourself on your journey?

Now let’s take a look at it from brand perspective. Travel is an integral part of LV’s brand image. And people from different segments have different definition of journey. Some might think it’s relaxation after long day work, some might think it’s discovering different culture. And LV define it as a journey of “self-discovery” which in a way, taps into the value needs of its target consumers — Successful and luxurious, on their journey to seek self-recognition. Brilliant.

The thing I like about this TV Commercial is — It doesn’t feel like a TV commercial. No celebrity faces, no obvious advertising lines, no fancy bling blings…etc. Just ordinary faces and beautiful scenery. This also brings out the spirit “The best things in life are free.” — This is the trend for luxury lifestyle in recent years.  And my favourite scene is the girl sitting in the car starring outside the window — I can’t remember how many times I’ve done that myself. And it’s just those moments of meditation which add more meaning to our lives. 

Bravo to LV!

P.S: I Love You April 19, 2008

This is not the Hillary Swank movie…It’s a picture of the chocolate bars I took a few weeks ago. Lovely isn’t it?! I love chocolate. Which girl doesn’t? And I was just amazed when one of my colleague put one bar of cholocate on my desk, which says “You’re awesome!”.

Sometimes it’s just interesting to see how people play with the marketing ideas for chocolate bars.  Let’s see what did they play with before: Flavours, Packaging of Boxes, TV commercials, Seasonal promotions…Cadbury and Dove have rocked the world with their small little bars. Now people (mostly women) all around the world have all varieties of chocolates to choose from.  But after all the massive marketing on TV, on print, in retail and in their mail boxes, what else appeals to them?

Then I found these cute little chocolate bars with different texts on it near the counter in a grocery store in Stellenbosch.  I couldn’t help but going through all the texts on all the bars on the shelf. They have text of all those little warm fuzzy words we say in our daily lives: “crazy about you”, “Thank you!”, “Sorry”, “You’re awesome!”, “You rock!”…And next to them are the bunch of chocolate bars with questions on: “Will you forgive me?”, “Will you go out with me?”…

I bought one of each, just out of curiosity. The P.S chocolate bars actually tastes very good, with peanut flavours. And the question bars are all divided into halves, with the answer of “YES” and “NO” in it!

Those chocolate bars focus very much on their functional purpose – to deliver message to the ones that people care about. They defintely appeal to those who need to say something. Quite clever indeed. However, since most of these chocolate are going to be given to other as gifts, instead self consumption. While most people buy chocolate for themselves would definitely appeal to flavours first as their priority. So I just guess there must some limit of market of these chocolate bars. It would really be a smart idea to use those P.S bars or questions bars as LEP though so as to raise the playful brand imagery of their brands.

Lessons we can’t learn at school… February 27, 2008

This is very interesting indeed. I don’t know who wrote this, but whoever it is, it must be very smart!!

It seems to me that schools often teach the opposite of what’s necessary for the real world. Perhaps in school people have plenty of time and no money, so long papers, emails, and presentations are not a problem. However, people in the real world have plenty of money (or at least more money) and no time. This is a list of what I wished I learned in school before I graduated.
1. How to talk to your boss. In college, you’re supposed to bring problems to your teachers during office hours, and you share the experience of coming up with a solution. In the real world, you’re supposed to bring solutions to your boss in an email, in the hall, or in a five-minute conversation. Typically, your boss either already knows about the problem or doesn’t want to know about it. Your role is to provide answers, not questions. Believe it or not, but in the real world, those who can do, do. Those who can’t do, share with others who can’t do.
2. How to survive a meeting that’s poorly run. Unfortunately, it could be a while before you run meetings. Until then, you’ll be a hapless victim of them, so adopt these three practices to survive. First, assume that most of what you’ll hear is pure, petty, ass-covering bull shiitake, and it’s part of the game. This will prevent you from going crazy. Second, focus on what you want to accomplish in the meeting and ignore everything else. Once you get what you want, take yourself “out of your body,” sit back, and enjoy the show. Third, vow to yourself that someday you’ll start a company, and your meetings won’t work like this.
3. How to run a meeting. Hopefully, you’ll be running meetings soon. Then you need to understand that the primary purpose of a business meeting is to make a decision. It is not to share experiences or feel warm and fuzzy. With that in mind, here are five key points to learn about running a meeting: (1) Start on time even if everyone isn’t there because they will be next time; (2) Invite the fewest people possible to the meeting; (3) Set an agenda for exactly what’s going to happen at the meeting; (4) End on time so that everyone focuses on the pertinent issues; (5) Send an email to all participants that confirms decisions reviews action items. There are more power tips for running good meetings, but if you do these five, you’re ahead of 90% of the world.
4. How to figure out anything on your own. Armed with Google, PDFs of manuals, and self-reliance, force yourself to learn how to figure out just about anything on your own. There are no office hours, no teaching assistants, and study groups in the real world. Actually, the real world is one long, often lonely independent study, so get with it. Here’s a question to test your research prowess. How do you update the calendar in a Motorola Q phone with appointments stored in Now-Up-To-Date? (I’ll send a copy of The Art of the Start to the first person with a good answer.)
5. How to negotiate. Don’t believe what you see in reality television shows about negotiation and teamwork. They’re all bull shiitake. The only method that works in the real world involves five steps: (1) Prepare for the negotiation by knowing your facts; (2) Figure out what you really want; (3) Figure out what you don’t care about; (4) Figure out what the other party really wants (per Kai); and (5) Create a win-win outcome to ensure that everyone is happy. You’ll be a negotiating maven if you do this.
6. How to have a conversation. Generally, “Whassup?” doesn’t work in the real world. Generally, “What do you do?” unleashes a response that leads to a good conversation (hence the recommendation below). Generally, if you listen more than you talk, you will (ironically) be considered not only a good conversationalist but also smart. Yes, life is mysterious sometimes.
7. How to explain something in thirty seconds. Unfortunately, many schools don’t have elevators or else students would know how to explain things in a thirty-second elevator pitch. Think mantra (three words), not mission statements (sixty words). Think time, not money, is the most important commodity. Think ahead, not on your feet. At the end of your thirty-second spiel, there should be an obvious answer to the question, “ So what?” If you can’t explain enough in thirty seconds to incite interest, you’re going to have a long, boring career.
8. How to write a one-page report. I remember struggling to meet the minimum page requirements of reports in college. Double spacing and 14 point Selectric typewriter balls saved me. Then I went out into the real world, and encountered bosses who wanted a one-page report. What the heck??? The best reports in the real world are one page or less. (The same thing is true of resumes, but that’s another, more controversial topic for unemployed people who want to list all the .Net classes that they took.)
9. How to write a five-sentence email. Young people have an advantage over older people in this area because older people (like me) were taught to write letters that were printed on paper, signed, stuck in an envelope, and mailed. Writing a short email was a new experience for them. Young people, by contrast are used to IMing and chatting. If anything, they’re too skilled on brevity, but it’s easier to teach someone how to write a long message than a short one. Whether UR young or old, the point is that the optimal length of an email message is five sentences. All you should do is explain who you are, what you want, why you should get it, and when you need it by.
10. How to get along with co-workers. Success in school is mostly determined by individual accomplishments: grades, test scores, projects, whatever. Few activities are group efforts. Then you go out in the real world the higher you rise in an organization, the less important your individual accomplishments are. What becomes more and more important is the ability to work with/through/besides and sometimes around others. The most important lesson to learn: Share the credit with others because a rising tide floats all boats.
What about freeloaders? (Those scum of the earth that don’t do anything for the group.) In school you can let them know how you truly feel. You can’t in the real world because bozos have a way of rising to the top of many organizations, and bozos seek revenge. The best solution is to bite your tongue, tolerate them, and try to never have them on the team again, but there’s little upside in criticizing them.
11. How to use PowerPoint. I’ve seen the PowerPoint slides of professors—it’s no wonder that most people can’t use PowerPoint to sell hybrid cars when gas is $10/gallon. Maybe professors are thinking: “This is a one-hour class, I can cover one slide per minute, so I need sixty slides. Oh, and I’ve written all this text already in my textbook, so I’ll just copy and paste my twelve-point manuscript into the presentation.” Perhaps the tenure system causes this kind of problem. In the real world, this is no tenure so you need to limit yourself to ten slides, twenty minutes, and a thirty-point font—assuming that you want to get what you want.
12. How to leave a voicemail. Very few people of any age leave good voicemails. The purpose of a voicemail is to make progress towards along a continuum whose end is getting what you want. A long voicemail isn’t going to zip you along to the end point of this decision. A good model is to think of a voicemail as an oral version of a compelling five-sentence email; the optimal length of a voicemail is fifteen seconds.
Two power tips: First, slowly say your telephone number once at the beginning of your message and again at the end. You don’t want to make people playback your message to get your phone number, and if either of you are using Cingular, you may not hear all the digits. Second (and this applies to email too), always make progress. Never leave a voicemail or send an email that says, “Call me back, and I’ll tell you what time we can meet.” Just say, “Tuesday, 10:00 am, at your office.”
One last thing: the purpose of going to school is not to prepare for working but to prepare for living. Working is a part of living, and it requires these kinds of skills no matter what career you pursue. However, there is much more to life than work, so study what you love.

Widgets Marketing- The next best thing? November 21, 2007

Do you have your own facebook page? Absolutely. MSN messenger? Of course. Gmail? I think so. MySpace? Maybe.Google Reader? Maybe. Google Picasa?Maybe….

And what do you have in your facebook? iLike?iRead?SuperWall?MyMood?Slide?Movie Compare?……or even Douban?

Let’s say that new media has already become part of our lives. The above widget or gadgets or blog bling or mini applications or whatever you want to call it are now spreading on the internet like wild weeds. Yahoo has launched its Widget platform recently. And my google reader is now full of articles commenting on it. Most of the articles give a quite positive outlook, putting Yahoo Widget together with Facebook and MySpace. I can’t help but wonder what makes all those huge internet players all join the game?

It started with the momentous thing when Facebook decided to open its platform to advertisers and developers, inviting them to create applications, sometimes called widgets, that can be shared from user to user. Then consumers can choose to add the application on their own page and recommend to friends in their own circles. And before you know it, the applications have reach very high adoption rates. 

As this emerging media starts to see greater adoption rates, advertising via this medium is doomed to come. The famous Red Bull, for instance, has created a branded version of rock-scissors-paper, called “Roshambull,” as an advertorial for its energy drinks, while Warner Bros. Records has released the first single and video from the White Stripes’s latest album in widget form. And I already start to imagine an application with which people can portray their favourite cigarettes, which could be something for tobacco companies.  

Apart from facebook, now Google, Apple and Yahoo Widgets have also developed similar widgets and bring the world of information to consumers desktops. And with no doubt, all of them entail advertising in one way or another.

There are some obvious strength of this kind of advertising methods:1. It’s easily accesible. 2.  The ads are extremely relevant. They enable brands to form a direct relationship with their consumers and allows them to engage them in a personalized way.They are like personal recommendations from your friends and spread from circles to circles. Never underestimate the power of word-of-mouth! 3.It’s less advertising-based. Most of the widgets bring consumers fun and people recommend them to their friends. And that’s how brand awareness grow.

However, there are still some potential risks. Whether consumers actually want to become product marketers is another question entirely. And when those applications become too much ad-like, consumers will start to detest the whole function.  

Andyway, now we can already see Facebook, Microsoft and Google trying very hard to have their own bite of the share, with Yahoo joining the game recently. The question is: Will Widgets Marketing be the next best thing? I’m sure we’ll find out the answer soon, as any other things which happens in the web world.

How does a brand thrive without traditional communications? November 1, 2007

Yesterday a friend of mine brought me some Kiehl’s skincare products from the US and started the topic of skincare.

“So you can’t buy Kiehls in China? What makes you want to use this brand?”

Yeah, good question. I’ve never read anything about Kiehl’s nor seen any advertising of the brand before I bought its products. I remembered the first time I bought my Kiehl’s cucumber Toner was a recommendation from a friend of mine. Then I kept using the products from the brand because it’s one of the key natural skincare brand. I love things that’s natural.

Then I was inspired by an article from the marketing guru the other day and made me wanted to look into the skincare industry. And let’s take a look what I’ve learnt about Kiehl’s:

1.The brand doens’t invest in any traditional communications, including advertising.

2. The regular users of Kiehl’s includes Kate Moss, George.W.Bush, Bill Clinton,  ……and even ”Carrie Bradshaw”!

How does the brand enjoy such popularity without traditional communications? The marketing director of L’Oreal said Kiehl’s is a mystery of the group.

After researched more about the brands, I’d say Kiehl’s succeeded by word-of-mouth, sampling and it’s heritage of natural ingredients. Established in 1851 in New york, the brand certainly has a long history. And the brand boasts an image of “natural” and “apothecary”. In its stores all across the world, they will showing the customers their long history of professionalism in skincare. All the Kiehl’s products have quit simple packaging. Looking at the lotions I’ve got, pure and simple bottle with a label of usage and ingredients. Not even a single graphics.  Then i checked out its website. Same style. If the apothecary style of the Kiehl’s store doesn’t appeal to you, the products will surely win your heart. Kiehl’s keeps packaging simple and doesn’t spend money on advertising, so all their energy goes into making superior products for skin, hair, and face.

They do their sampling by either “white-coated doctors” or free gifts to celebrities. This way they spread their credibility of being genuin professional who know how to take care of your skin. When celebrities receive their samples and fall in love with them, the good spread of “word-of-mouth” starts.

Kiehl’s word-of-mouth is very impressive.  Celebrity endorsement, online recommendations, all kinds of ratings……Remember how I bought my first Kiehl’s product? Kiehl’s has maintained this distinctive approach despite having been acquired by cosmetics giant L’Oreal in 2000.

The stories could be quite inspiring to the industries where traditional communication can’t find its way. Think about it!

Image Peace Tower – more than a PR event October 22, 2007

40 years ago, Yoko Ono and John Lennon started their project to deliver PEACE to the world. Today, 27 years after John’s death, Yoko Ono’s Peace Tower on Videy Island in Reykjavík was unveiled, on what would have been the 67th birthday of John Lennon. The pillar of light will shine until December 8, the anniversary of his murder in New York in 1980.

I was immediately intrigued by the blog line when I read those words: Yoko Ono, John Lennon, their masterpiece IMAGINE, the MOST north capital city in the world……Those words are the perfect combination to generate media coverage: Celebrity names (Dead and Alive), special location( the MOST north capital), special gadget (the Image peace tower), positive theme (world peace). Anyone would want to stop to such headline.  

The tower is the realization of a project that she and John first spoke about 40 years ago. It is a beam of light that will project from a wishing well bearing the words “imagine peace” in 24 languages and will be lit each year from Oct. 9 to Dec. 8th (the anniversary of John’s death).

The concept is utterly brilliant. But apart from all the normal PR-oriented key messages and intriguing words, what really impressed me is the strong will of Yoko and John and the eternal love between the two.  We could say that it’s a great milestone of their love journey, with or without John. They’ve been the one of the greatest lovers of all time. World peace is a perpetual topic. Human beings have been pursuing for it through centuries. But when it comes to individuals, one barely thinks about what he could do for the perpetual dream. Yoko and John have been using arts and their voice to deliver the message to the world, just as they said in IMAGINE:  

You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one 

And today Yoko Ono called on the world to imagine living life in peace as she unveiled her installment. Ono and Beatles drummer Ringo Starr lit up the cold night with the wide shaft of blue light as about 200 people sang along with Lennon’s song “Imagine,” playing in the background.  Perfect. I’m sure when the light from the tower shines, the world will pause for a time and imagine peace.  

Thanks, Yoko and John.

Life at 30,000 feet October 13, 2007

I really like this portrait of Richard Branson as in a Che Guevara out of all of his bizarre and interesting portraits and photographs.  Who exactly is this Richard person you might wonder? Wiki gives a full list of what he does and all his ventures, his company site gives a thorough autobiography of himself as well.   But as I see it, as entitled in the picture, he is a true “Business Revolutionist.”

From a Student Magazine to a billionnaire, from Virgin Airlines to Virgin records to Virgin condom, from world records to a father of two children, he definitely has too many tails to tell. When he was at school, his headmaster predicted he would wind up either a millionaire or in jail.  And he’s done both. (To jail first though,twice!)

To be honest, I was not so interested in him as an entrepreneur before even when his crazy action at the top of the Jinmao Tower in Shanghai generated huge coverage in Chinese newspapers. But His recent talk with Chris Anderson on TED conference has inspired me a lot. And I’d like to share with you here.

There are certain points that I really like about him in this talk: 

1. How he breaks all the rules and doesn’t really care about all the stupid comment around him. 

2. How great leaders should share their entrepreneurial know-how to help government to do things a bit differently.

3. The way he re-intepreted the word “bollocks” to save him from thrown into prison again!!

I was amazed by all the energy he’s got. Cross the Atlantic ocean on a hot ballon? Many would call him a maniac but apart from all the PR value he created for his brands, he definitely has enjoyed his life to a very large extent. This I admire very much. I can’t help but wonder, what is it we really need to become a great leader? A great mind? An aspiration? Courage? A big heart? craziness??

One of Che’s famous lines is “In a revolution, one triumps or dies.”

And Richard’s stories have just proved it.

I’m not a plastic bag!! October 10, 2007

Looks familiar?? Yeah, it’s my bag!! (provided if you see me everyday…)London designer Anya Hindmarch who is also known as the “Queen of Bagland”has definitely earned world fame through her “I’m not a plastic bag” bag!! She has officially made being “eco-friendly” a big fashion and many clever companies are now following this trend.

From London to New York, Tokyo to Hong Kong, millions of women have become crazy about this bag!! A fiver bag suddenly cost like $200!! Before I’d call it absurd, let’s just take a look at who else are carrrying this bag: Lily Cole, Lily Allen, Keira Knightly…All of a sudden, the little bag has generated another big consuming frenzy. And its sales record has left many big brands far behind.

 It might not be an A-list bag, but it carries a big objective – Against Global Warming. Anya cooperate with “We Are What We Do” and designed this bag so that women would use less plastic bags.

However, do people really know the purpose of this bag as they spent $200 for it?? Will they really put bread, dipers, bananas in it?? I doubt it. When I bought this bag, the shop assistant wrapped it in a plastic bag and handed it over to me. And then I ranked it as the No.1 in my “Annual Irony”!!

Now let’s take a look at the marketing campaign of the bag. It surely did a very good marketing communiction job I have to say. They know who leads the fashion world: the superstars!! So they put the bags at the Oscar and other fashion week’s gift booth for those super starts to pick for free. They sent out samples to super models. And of course, the insiders of all the big fashion mags. And when the bag became popular in the circle, they made stories of it! The next thing we knew was the flashy pictures of famous faces carrying “I’m not a plastic bag”!!

How did they encourage all the celebrities to pick up their bags?If we think about it, they’ve picked up a very good driver – “Eco-friendly”. Environment protection has been popular since forever and the topic of global warming has been raised to a new level. Government officials (Al Gore – Inconvenient truth), multinational companies, celebrities…Everyone’s talking about it. The hot topic plus the fact Anya Hindmarch bag is a must-have for every bag-lover, the combination is perfect!! Very brilliant concept.

Now it doesn’t matter what people say about the bag or why they buy it, what’s important is the huge amount of publicity the bag gets and the huge benefits the brand achieves.

So hats off to the PR and marketing team of Anya Hindmarch!

Who decides your shopping cart? October 9, 2007

This is not my first blog and it certainly won’t be my last. But it’s my first ENGLISH blog since too many people complain that they couldn’t read my Chinese ones…So here we go.

Today I was reading a quite interesting paper about on-line recommenders and it suddenly occurs to me how much we depend on on-line recommendations.

 Think about it:

When you want to buy some skincare stuff, what do you do? — Go to Beauty BBS and read reviews of different brands!

When you want to buy the lastest camera, what do you do? — Go to Electronics site and check out the specs and review!

When you want to buy a car, what do you do? — Go to auto websites and read through test drive reports!

Let along all those times you order books from Amazon.com or Dangdang.com and read all the listings and rankings.

Modern life has made many consumers depent largely on internet. While traditional verbal-recommendation becomes distant, on-line recommendation comes near. 

Many big companies have already started to use “new media” and leverage the popularity of facebook, myspace and big blog centers. Some famous auto company paid 10 “bloggers” and “experienced drivers” to write “professional” blogs and reviews about their brands and thus has generally dominated the “new media” in China auto market. The manufacturer’s repulation & brand image has then seen a soaring tendency.

Web 2.0 has already become a legend and what’s next?Will on-line recommenders become the next biggest impact on our purchasing behaviors?