Chi_H_BUS121H Fundamentals of Marketing

Final Project- Promotion

2012-02-27T15:21:00.011-08:00

Final Project

Final Project- Distribution

2012-02-27T15:21:00.010-08:00

Final Project

Final Project- Price

2012-02-27T15:21:00.009-08:00

Final Project

Final Project- Implementation Evalution Control

2012-02-27T15:21:00.008-08:00

Final Project

Final Project- Target Market Strategy

2012-02-27T15:20:00.004-08:00

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Final Project- Product

2012-02-27T15:20:00.003-08:00

Final Project

Final Project- Situation or SWOT Analysis

2012-02-27T15:18:00.003-08:00

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Final Project- Objectives

2012-02-27T15:17:00.004-08:00

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Final Project- Business Mission Statement

2012-02-27T15:15:00.000-08:00

Final Project

Week 8 EOC: Creative Content

2012-02-27T13:26:00.003-08:00

Chi Huynh

Website (primary) or Poster

Website- will make about one to three pages web pages to promote the product

Home Page (index)-

1.) Logo: create and design the logo

2.) Images slider: will have to create at least three sample images to make the chocolates look better

3.) Tag lines: Surprises/ Sweet Nightmares/ Love and Hate/ Haven and Hell; The Taste of Surprises

4.) Product photos/images- small thumbnails to show product and box designs (all link to shopping/product page)

Shopping/Product Page (fake shopping cart page)-

1.) Labels: categories, tags, and etc.

2.) Small thumbnails- show off images of product

3.) Checkout button- lead/link to fake checkout page

1.) Fake contact form

2.) FAQs section- what is Sweet Nightmares? What should I buy it? Would that be a great gift?

3.) Phone number and online chat- have questions? Ask them now

Style of the site: fun, childish, causal…

The overall mission of the website or the creative content is to promote the product as a specialty product. “Specialty products are consumer products and services with unique characteristics or brand identification for which a significant group of buyers is willing to make a special purchase effort.” (Marketing An Introduction, Armstrong/Kotler, print page 211.) What you are buying is not a box of chocolates, it is fun and surprise.

Estimated work hours- *with stock images + without the distraction of Facebook

Templates: 4~5 + hours (first choice)

Custom made: 6~8 + hours

Week 7 EOC: The Taste of Surprises

2012-02-20T16:51:00.001-08:00

Week 7 EOC: The Taste of Surprises

Surprises/ Sweet Nightmares/ Love and Hate/ Haven and Hell

“Do you know how do I feel about you?”

“Taste me.”

Inside of a box of ten chocolates, each of them looks the same but has different tastes. It may have dark chocolate, bittersweet chocolate, orange chocolate, pepper chocolate, and so much more. The combination is completely random. And you will never know which one you will get.

Do you have someone that you hate and love at the same time? If you have kids, you might understand. Well, parents are top on the list too. So you want to give them something that is so special and full of surprises. And the Sweet Nightmares is for you.

It is not just a chocolate. It is a box of chocolates. Each of them looks exactly the same. However, here is the fun part: they all have different tastes. No two of them will taste the same. And if you think they are all sweet and full of love, then you are wrong.

The Sweet Nightmares offers you the experience that no other box of chocolates can give you. It gives you love, hate, sweet, bitter, and so much more. And it is the perfect gift for every situation. Of course, it tastes so much better when you share it. You can tell what kind of chocolates from the faces of your friends, family, and love ones.

Sweet Nightmares has the element of surprise that no other can provide. Love life, love surprise, love Sweet Nightmares.

Week 6 EOC: ME X 3

2012-02-13T15:51:00.000-08:00

Week 6 EOC: ME X 3

1.) Ipage (web hosting service)

I use this product to host most of my websites. I also use to test new thing i.e. testing out PHP pages, new HTML5 and CSS3 pages, and some javascript files. As a web designer, I have to have a hosting service. Beside, I use it sometime as my dropbox or the cloud server to store my files.

2.) Patriot Xporter XT Boost 8GB Flash Drive/ CORSAIR Flash Voyager 16GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive/ dropbox

Well, you just cannot trust the internet all the time. That is why I always have a usb flash drive with me on the time. I use it to save my project, school works, and etc. Dropbox is good because everything is in the cloud; however, sometime, the cloud goes down or there is no internet (that happened a few times before).

3.) The Web Designer's Idea Book: The Ultimate Guide To Themes, Trends & Styles In Website Design (Web Designer's Idea Book: The Latest Themes, Trends & Styles in Website Design)

It is where most of my ideas and inspirations come from. It is a book all about web design. It has all the best-designed web sites. It gives inspiration by color, design style, type, theme, and layout… so much more! If you are a web designer, you have to get this book.

Week 5 EOC: Social Networks and Job Hunting

2012-02-06T15:20:00.001-08:00

What is the perfect job candidate? I mean beside you want to know what skills they have or what college they go to, don’t you want to know what kind of person they are? Maybe you are saying that is why interview is for but social networks can surely get a better understanding of that person. One best way to know a person is to know their friends. I did not mean to you have to stalk that person. Just go on to their Facebook site and see their photos and comments. “Some workplace studies suggest that almost 40% of employers have used Facebook and other social networking sites to gather information on job candidates. In cases where they have found negative information, more than 80% of employers consider it when making hiring decisions.” (HR Library, http://www.gneil.com/library/Using-Facebook-for-Hiring) Wow, 40% is a high number. But is it legal to do that?

Issues we are facing more than that, which including invasion of privacy, false information, and etc. For the employers, they will want to know what kind of person you are either on duty or off duty. What is the lesson learned here? Do not post your photos that you don’t want your employers and your mom to see on your Facebook.

More facts: About 45% of the companies are screening social sites for potential hires. While only 18% of the employers found that positive, but 35% found that negative.

Source of the facts: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/04/new-infographic-shows-how-companies-target-unemployed_n_918816.html

Week 4: There is an app for that!

2012-01-30T16:05:00.000-08:00

Find your face on that book!

One day, my friends and I had this really interesting idea. What if you can just take a head shot photo from a person and the app can find that person on Facebook for you. That is amazing. What if you are too shy to talk to someone like? The app can help you to know that person even you don’t know that person in real life. You know what they like before they tell you. Is there privacy problem? We will leave that to Facebook. If you choose not to show any of your information on your Facebook, then the app won’t show it.

The basic idea of the app is to use face recognition on the Facebook profile picture. What if that person has a picture of a dog or something that is unrecognizable? That the app won’t work.

The app may sound like a little creepy. However, Facebook is creepy. One of the main issues is convince Facebook add the face recognition plug-in. And also Facebook has to allow the app uses Facebook databases. If Facebook said yes, everything will work fine. The main function of app is to scan faces and try to find the right match picture on Facebook database. Will there be stalkers problem? Even without this app, people can still find you on Facebook and stalk you. Let just not see the app as a stalking tool. We should see it as a tool to help us make friends easier.

The app would be free to download. Of course, there will be an upgradable version, which will cost about 0.99 cents. An upgraded app will be able to see to the person’s photos too. You can poke that person right on that app. You can even add and massage that person right on that app.

Week 3 EOC: Boston Consulting Group - Video Games

2012-01-23T18:49:00.000-08:00

Based on the BCG Growth-Share Matrix, there are Stars (high share and high growth), Question Marks (low share and high growth), Cash Cows (high share and low growth), and Dogs (low share and low growth).

And based on my research on video game market, here is what I got:

1.) Star- download digital data i.e. iphone games/apps

Stars generate large amounts of money and also consume large amounts of money. It has strong and high market share and growth rate. A star can become a cash cow when the market growth rate deceased which means lesser choices. And the iphone app market is HUGE, it is "worth more than $2.4 billion a year." Learn more click this link: http://gigaom.com/2009/08/27/how-big-is-apple-iphone-app-economy-the-answer-might-surprise-you/

2.) Cash Cow- Xbox 360

Cash Cow has a greater return. It is high share and low growth. When it comes to home entertainment gaming devices, xbox 360 and ps3 are on the top of the list. Microsoft is a cash cow. It enters many different markets to maximize its cash flows. From software to motion games, it has covers all. Here is what people say "Microsoft's Kinect offers several features such as voice commands, hand gestures and the ability to communicate with friends and family... The strength of Kinect lies in its simplicity of use."
http://www.industrygamers.com/news/xbox-360s-kinect-will-be-big-winner-this-holiday-says-market-researcher-ipsos/

http://beta.fool.com/shamapant/2011/12/22/djia-analysis-microsoft/260/

3.) Question Mark- Will

Question Marks are growing fast. It has a low market share but high growth. It can go two way: up to Cash cow or down to Dogs. Wii is focusing on kids. It offers large range of motion games thinking if the kids want it, the parents would buy it. However, that is not the case. Many people also think "that the Nintendo Wii is dying."

http://www.conceivablytech.com/2685/business/game-console-market-dissected-nintendo-wii-is-dying

4.) Dogs- PlayStation 3

Dogs have low market share and low market growth. Xbox 360 might do better in America but in the Japan or Asian countries, PlayStation is the cash cow. Why would I say that PS3 is the dogs? One of the main reasons is that it is so easy to hack. Do you remember when Anonymous attacked PlayStation Network? "Its stock dropped. Everyone freaked out. Information got stolen." How can you make money when people don’t trust to use your system? It might not be the dog now but if Sony does not do anything about it, it will soon become the dog.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/04/anonymous-attacks-sony-to-protest-ps3-hacker-lawsuit.ars

Week 1 EOC: Great Customer Service

2012-01-19T00:31:00.000-08:00

Week 1 EOC: Great Customer Service

What is great customer service? It is always to be helpful- even if there is no profit immediately. For example from chapter one: Zappos does not focus too much on advertising. It truly understands the meaning of “the aim of marketing is to make selling unnecessary” (Marketing An Introduction, p.4/52). It is an online retailer but how did it become so success? Here are some of the reasons: free delivery and free returns. Not only that, it has a 365-day return policy. It has a customer- service center which is 24/4 open. It actually hires over 500 staffs to answer phone calls. People who call want to talk to a live person, not a fake pre-corded robot voice.

Another good example: Wal-Mart, it is now the largest retailer in the world. Why is Wal-mart so successful? First of all, it opens 24 hours a day. I mean how could a store provide customer service when is closed. Second of all, it keeps its promise: “Save money. Live better” (Marketing An Introduction, p.3/52). It always offers low prices. Third of all, it also provides site-to-store service. It is a free service that lets you ship your online order to any Wal-mart store in the United States. Customers would be able to order anything but groceries without having to waste any time by walking down the aisles and grab them. If you are really lazy or busy, you would like that service. Customers will be able to choose from thousands of items which you won’t see them normally in store. The bestselling point of that service: it is free shipping orders to any Wal-mart store.

Week 1 EOC: My Voice

2012-01-14T17:03:00.000-08:00

What does it feel like when you have the ability to create tomorrow? Let me tell you, it is awesome! As a web designer, I am able to create tomorrow by creating web sites, fill in data, and code for the future.

What do I mean by code for the future? When is the last time you have been on YouTube or “Google” something? You are probably doing it now. And we, the web designers, make that happen.

As a professional in the web design field, I am able to create from static we pages to interactive web pages. The tools I use range from HTML, CSS, Javascript, Php, and so much more.

Back in the days, sharing and learning information were HARD. For example, you have to do a research paper and it needs supporting sources. Back in the days, you would have to go to a library and search for books. You would have to spend hours and days. Nowadays, we, the web designers, make your life so much easier. You just have to Google it.

By the way, web design is not just about making pretty web pages. We care about the viewers also. Yes, white texts on black background will sure pop-out because of the high contrast but if you read that for too long, you will hurt your eyes. We actually care about you. We all like pretty things. However, as a web designer, I am not only making pretty things, I make useable things including clean and simple layout, easy-to-understand navigation, and easy-to-follow links.

Well, actually I am more into the web development side of the web design. Then what is web development? If you searched web development on Wikipedia, this is what you will get: “Web development is a broad term for the work involved in developing a web site for the Internet (World Wide Web) or an intranet (a private network). This can include web design, web content development, client liaison, client-side/server-side scripting, web server and network security configuration, and e-commerce development. However, among web professionals, "web development" usually refers to the main non-design aspects of building web sites: writing markup and coding.” What does it mean? Basically, we make or code the layout and make sure the functions of the web site work. Well, what is a function?

Have you ever gone on a web site which requires you to login first? Have you used a search bar on a web site? Have you clicked on an image and it pops up and enlarges? They are all functions. Back then a web page is just a web page. It only displays information and more links. But now, we are able to add interactivity on a website. We use programing language like JavaScript to add interactivity on the client side for users like you. So now you can click, drag, or move things around on a web page. We also use programing language like php to connect to the server side. For example, if you search or login, the web page will send the request to the server and the server will return the result and displays it for you. In that example, the server side programing language does the tricks.

Why did I say I am more into the web development side of the web design? Whenever you ask me to choose what colors to use on a web page, my brain would freeze. I would make everything gray, all the text would black (Arial), and the link in blue. Yes, I love to make pretty things; however, I am not good at just making pretty images and colorful layout. In my view, a beautiful website is clean, simple, and has no broken codes. Do you know how annoying it is to have a search bar that doesn’t work? I would close that web page and never go on it again.

The future is the web (my short term for World Wide Web). The web is our future. And I love the web. I am passionate to be working in this field.