The Marketing Peg

In the past, we were all so focused on the traditional type of marketing. Usually with its main focus on products, and of course, the most popular strategy in marketing are the 4 Ps and how you manage them. The 4 Ps , they also mean product, price, promotion and place . I've been so familiar with that ever since my MKT1001 Principles of Marketing course in NUS. Never forgot about that. In my basic marketing class, I was taught of how to position the product. Many models such as the Ansoff Matrix was applied. Everything was about the product : How you should design the product , whether its functional, how much one should price it, what advertising strategies are needed to promote the product and where you should sell the product . The main focus was... the product . Then when I come to Copenhagen Business School and took my Advanced Service Marketing course, it is all about the service - the experience. Marketing has shifted into a new paradigm that involves the service . Everyt...

Yes... the girls whom we all oh-so familiar with - the Spice Girls - are back! =) I can vividly remember what a big hit they were. I bought all their cds, and I even bought their Spice World movie (and watched it umpteen times). Thinking of them would remind me of my teeny bopper years as a secondary school kid, still in braces, long skirt and horrifying skin. Haha. But the world can never forget the Spice girls. They were IT in the '90s. They still are, however, in everyone's minds though, because every time when there is news of any one of the girls, they would not only have their names published, but also their nickname as a Spice Girl. For example, Victoria Beckham (omg my favourite Spice Girl since) would always have an "aka Posh Spice" when news or stories about her are written. With these references, how can the world forget? In case you already forgot their names (heaven forbid)... here's the list. Victoria "Posh Spice" Beckham, Melanie "Spo...

So there's all the hype about the iPhone. I've seen the first generation ones... not very hot. And so were most of the comments online. The iPhone. Also discussed a case on it in class. The topic was whether the iPhone will hold out in the long run, especially with other strong mobile phone competitors already present, whose core competence is in manufacturing and designing mobile phones. But we can all understand why Apple is moving forward into the mobile industry. Because it clearly understands that iPod will sooner or later be replaced by mobile phones with great mp3 capabilities that will soon rival the iPod. So why not cannibalize yourself first rather than letting others kill your product in the long term? Anyway, the bottom line that my Global Strategic Management lecturer analysed, was not in favour of the iPhone. Reasons: iPhone is outrageously priced ... for a mobile phone nowadays. People in this generation are used to cheap and high quality phones, some even get th...

The video above is an ad made by Apple to show consumers the differences between a Mac and PC (or rather, more specifically, Windows OS). This was supposed to generate good publicity and sales I would guess. Cos I doubt that they will hire the famous guy to act as the Mac "just for the fun of it". Using YouTube as the advertising medium is a good way of generating publicity, especially when 900,000 odd views have already been clocked for this ad. But is this good publicity that we're getting at? Looking at the comments , you would find that most of it are not exactly "pro mac". " Pcs cant do anything fun.... there are hardly any mac games and the few that r arent very good" "How the hell is Mac better than Windows AND Linux. Windows = Program compatibility. Linux = Stability, performance, security, open source, free, eye candy. Mac's positives are about the same as Linux except its costly and not open source. The only reason I see to u...

I have always been interested in the mobile industry. Even more so after my internship with Y! in the mobile department. Recently, I have noticed an interesting news on opportunities for advertising hotspots in Singapore. I would gather that it's roughly similar to wireless hotspots for internet - once you're in a certain area that has wireless infrastructure, you are able to log onto the internet. And for location based advertising (LBA), when a shopper is in an area of a certain store, an sms would be sent to them alerting them of a certain promotion or offer of that store. "When shoppers are within the advertisers' catchment areas, they are more likely to respond positively to their messages, it will appeal to a nation passionate about shopping and our customers will be the first to benefit from a variety of attractive offers and discounts exclusive to them through this new marketing channel." I can totally imagine this working. Imagine I walk past Starbucks. T...

Radiohead's new album will be released in Oct 10 - In Rainbows . This is not the only thing that will excite Radiohead's fans out there. The most surprising about In Rainbows is not only its release but its price. How much it is? - It is whatever you want to pay for it. Yes, can you believe it? Now, downloading music without paying for it is LEGAL! Haha, only for Radiohead's that is. Radiohead is considered the best band around and if they are doing this - avoiding the whole business model and all - they could be starting a dangerous (but good for us!) trend. People could download good.. no... great music without paying. So why should they pay for substandard music anymore? Even iTunes charge of 0.99 cents is being threatened. Why pay 0.99 cents when you can get music from the best band around, free? But one problem here is that they may not have profits at all. So how are they going to continue making music if they do not have the funds to sustain their expenses? My frie...