Week 10 Journal

1. What is reflection and why is it important in business and when planning marketing.
Reflection is a process of careful consideration and evaluating the effects of a process or action. It is important in business and when planning marketing in order to determine whether a marketing activity is successful or not, and to what degree was it successful. Reflection/ evaluation can also help create or improve new marketing strategies .


Week 10 Blog
The business.gov website has easy navigation with most aspects of a well functioning website. The search bar is positioned in the top right corner which allows users to quickly search for specific inquiries. The sites navigation is positioned on the left hand side of the page. It is more usual that a website has the navigation across the top of the page, however the site works well with the links running down the page. The right hand side of the page also provides useful links such as popular link, social media links, and related pages.The site also provides a site map for easy navigation.

I also checked the website in the W3C accessibility checker and it was approved, showing that the website has successfully completed all aspects that allows it to be disability friendly. These aspects are evident in the small text in the top right hand corner where users can change the size of the text on the site. (http://validator.w3.org/)

Promotion Ideas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ba1BqJ4S2M



This Tippex ad was on the Gruen Transfer a while ago however i think it is one of the most successful viral promotional activities i have seen. It allows users to be interactive with the video as it allows users to type anything that the hunter will do e.g. hunter hugs a bear, hunter fights a bear, hunter kisses a bear, hunter serenades a bear.... pretty much anything, and the hunter will do it.

The most effective part of the ad is when the hunter reaches outside of the youtube clip and grabs the white out product. The visual is strong and startling to the viewer which is stimulating attention grabbing.



I think something like this would be awesome for UC Eat! as it targets a young market segment that is computer literate and is a market segment that would enjoy the amusement of the clip, particularly to create a quick study break, which could also promote the eatery.

Week 9 Journal

Read the online case article “Applying global trends: A look at China’s auto industry” Discuss in small groups what are the impacting factors that can impact on business. Student should apply these to their own live case project. Strategically and operationally. Write this up in your journal and make comments.

1. Establish the reference frame
"right frame of reference - a specific problem statement and a clear sense of the industry context for long term shifts."

The UC Refectory could use this by asking questions such as how much of the market share will competitors such as Sizzles and Mizzuna capture in the future? How will this reflect the refectory in terms of profitability?

Because the refectory is re-branding itself it may take time to create consumer loyalty which will make the business think carefully about competing on aspects such as price and value.

2. Expand the solution space
"broaden the potential solution space by challenging conventional wisdom through the lens of global trends."

UC refectory needs to keep an eye on trends. This can be done by gathering data on information such as regulations, macroeconomics and demands.

3. Define scenarios
"quadrant crunching allows planners to generate extreme but plausible scenarios quickly by reversing their underlying assumptions to arrive at a number of different potential states of the world."

By creating scenarios, UC refectory will be able to work with any potential trends. E.g. if sales are down due to the GFC the refectory could already have a number of potential strategies to help them overcome the problem in the case of the GFC, the refectory may introduce marketing strategies such as new customer loyalty programs, discounts etc.

4. Quantify industry impact
"Delphi technique: systematic forecasting method"
keeping an eye of profitability and finances are an important part of trend watching and business success.


Discuss how you will evaluate and measure the success of your promotional activity and how will you use this in improving you recommendations and plan :

In order to evaluate our promotional activity we will be providing a quick survey sheet that will allow participants to quickly rate the activity. This information will be useful as it will help us rate the success of the activity, as well as give us an indication of how many people we get to participate.

The survey will have a space for comments and suggestions which will be useful for future promotional activities.


Week 9 Blog
The business and marketing plan templates provided on the business.gov are a good source of information for anyone who is creating a new business or is expanding an existing business. These templates compared to others found on the internet are more informative with links and explanations about what is exactly needed in order to complete each section of the plan successfully.

In terms of the live case study, the marketing plan will be very useful in order to see what information we need as the UC Refectory does not currently have a marketing plan.