Life will never be the same without you

We had wonderful time in Sydney. We went to Fish Market, the Opera House, Harbour bridge, Darling Harbour...

We've got unforgettable memories there, any word is too weak to express my strong feelings for all MMSP members and this pleasant, funny and exciting tour. So let me show you some pictures, then you will know how fantastic it was!!!


at the top left corner: shoot at a bar oppostie to our hotel
at the top right corner:shoot at Sydney Operal House
at the bottom left: we CLIMBED the Sydney Harbour bridge
 bottom middel: me in Fish Marketing enjoying Oyster
bottom right: shoot in Darling Harbour

the fresh and yummy seafood in Fish market



Ling, are you so anxious to finish the garlic oyster??

In front of the Sydney Harbour Bridge



just before we climbed Sydnedy Harbour bridge



we went to Bondi Beach, we had dinner at a restaurant called 'Sweet Sugar'.
But when we planed to go back, it was heavily rainning outside, the road  flooded.

at the bar

Darling Harbour

it is not just a trip, it's a life

LIFE WILL NEVER BE THE SAEM WITHOUT YOU, MY FRIEND

Sdyney--DDB

DDB is a marketing communication agency we visited in Sydney on the third day. Honestly, I don’t like their office very much. It’s a bit dark for me. However, once I know what they do is selling ideas and creativity, I feel so exciting and can’t wait attending to their presentation. Nicole Taylor and Claire Salvetti are two super nice ladies who gave us the presentation.

From the presentation, I noticed that creativity is the most power force in business. It has strong

influence and compelling force on consumer action, attitudes and behavior toward the brand. DDB’s

aim is to influence consumers by their ads or advertising strategies. Time, confidence, leadership,

resource, dynamic are some of the factors that make advertisements successfully achieve

organizational goals. Innovation and channels selection are two other factors that marketers in DDB

should consider. Therefore, social media should not be underestimated. The evolution from mass

media to social media and digital media, which all depends on the Internet and wireless technology.

As a result, applications, competitions, games, location based service help move away from

communication towards experiences.

Nicole shown us case study about Telstra advertising campaigns: CabbieOke, Party Catchers and Sushi Plane. It run successfully with highly involvement with young people. The case study emphases the importance of digital and social media and how to use them in a manner to achieve consistency which is one goal, one message of Telstra: change young people’s attitudes towards Telstra.

At last, we took picture in front of DDB building!

Sydney--Lend Lease

Have you seen builiding natural heater inside without consuming electricity? I did!! That was our first visit in Sydney, Lend Lease, a amazing company with natural ‘air conditioner’ and ‘central heating’ inside. When I first walked into Lend Lease office, a big and natural stone wall catch my eyes, the building is built rely on the big stone, it helps to building to keep cool in summer and keep warmth in winter. Such an extraordinary architecture! Trish led us to the upstair and shown us around Lend Lease natural palace.

What are the meanings of ‘social responsibility’ and ‘environmental friendly’? Ask Lend Lease! They do extremlly well on saving energy and making good use of space and natural gift from God—wind and sunshine. Most parts of wall in the building are made of glasses so that light can be come thourgh.

Christine, Madeleine, Paul gave us presentator about the managing concept and marketing strategies of Lend Lease. Lend Lease’s vision is ‘We live retail’ which means Lend Lease focuses on establishing relationship with customers by providing them lifetime experience when they shop in Lend Lease properties. Lend Lease is not just a company that lease property but creating experience and changing customers life.

The history and achievements of Lend Lease are:

l  Lend Lease is a glpbal integrated real estate group established in 1958 with 17,000 employees
nowadays.

l  The group operates in over 35 with 100 offices through Australia and Asia,

l  Become one of top 100 companies in ASX in 1962

l  Major retail channel: departments which have their own marketing teams

l  Sub-region retail channel: supermarkets which with part time marketing/ managers

After the brief introduction of Lend Lease group, Paul show us ‘We live retail’ advertising video. Through the video, we can see Lend Lease is a responsible company providing people with shopping experience with friends and family, it aims to connecting with community, suppliers and stakeholders. For the corporation point of view, Lend Lease aims to increase value of property.

Finally, one of the marketing managers, Binaca talked about what branding strategy in Lend Lease. Firstly, understanding target customers is important to Lend Lease to ‘brand’ itself. therefore, Lend Lease did research on ‘Why women shop’. Position customers by time to create emotions, such as valentine’s day. After positioning, Lend Lease cut through noises from other ads. By connecting with local markets, Lend Lease also create guide that deliver consistent brand message in community. We can see how the ads improved from 2010 to 2012. All the details of the ads seen to be important as little change of the ads title or color may have big effect on consumers response.

And then, another marketing manager introduce social media and digital marketing in Lend Lease.

The reasons of Lend Lease using social media are below:

l  The value of social media as a marketing tool is growing day-by-day

l  Social media helps to build relationship with customers

l  Target ads where consumers opt to hear from you as opposites to blanketed marketing

l  Brands become more relatable and human

l  The voice of your fan is volume to a brands credibility

Facebook

l  Lend lease launched fb pages for our shopping centers in 2011

l  It quickly become relatable with our communities to a captive

l  Fast, effective messaging can be relayed to fan base

Key principles of social media:

l  Make it conversational and relatable

l  Don't delete or ignore negative posts

l  Embrace the power of social media

l  Value your community

JThanks to Lend Lease marketing team, we learnt a lot on that day! J

Sydney--Shoe of Prey

The last station of company visit in Sydney is Shoe of Prey (SOP), a young but ambitious and successful company which implemented online shoe selling and 3D customised design People in Shoe of Prey are all stylish and fashionable, gilrls wearing high heel shoes, guys wearing colourful glasses. Our presenter Micheal Fox, who used to be a lawer but changed his carrer into shoe selling industry. He gave us warm welcome, and started to talk about Shoe of Prey history and selling concepts. Micheal analysed the reasons women love shoes can be expalined into three aspects: women love creative design, they pursue specific style, they think unique shoes match an outfit. Micheal continuousely introduced Shoe of Prey to us: SOP gained 60% sales outside Australia, 17 employees worked in China and Sydney, self-funded raising capital, customise shoes in SOP website, speical own-design experience in retail channels make SOP outstanding. ‘’SOP was born out of desire’’ Micheal said. Inspiring and educating customers are the main mission of SOP as company still in climbing stage. Therefore, quality messages is delivered via videos, pictures. Once customer put their experience in facebook, brand awareness increased by word of mouth. Customer will ask their friends opinions about the shoes, brand expose while customers sharing their experience in SOP. Micheal said SOP also used net promoter score to evaluate customers willingness to suggest repurchase. However, it did not show high NPS in research. The barriers to entry into shoe industry with a total online selling channel contain: Brand loyalty to other brands, community built by other brands, lack of trust and advocacy; mass customisation manufacture is difficult; 3D designer augmented reality; lack of partnership, such as department stores. Micheal also described SOP future to us. Micheal said SOP will operate stores with digital screen, 3D mirror which allow customers to see whether the shoes is fit without actually put it on. SOP committed to be unique, interesting and special, like the purple cow standout in a group of black and white cow. Hence, SOP managed all customer touch points in a unique and special way. SOP also noticed the importance of social media, which considered as another tool of word of mouth. Engagement created by interactive communication with customers. Trust built by conveying genuine messages through facebook. Other social media SOP used include youtude and fashion blogs.

After Micheal finished his presentation, I went to talk to him as I am still curious about SOP distribution channel. Micheal told me, all the shoes materials come from China, and once they receive customer offer, they will inform Chinese supplier to make shoes according to customers’ design. High margin can be gained because the cheaper labour and materials price in China. When I asked whether SOP has the intention to sell customised clothes, Micheal said now their main focus still on shoes. It is a bit risky for them to move into another area.

 

Several things that impressed me during the visit:

a.       SOP gained huge revenue within 2.5years operation

b.       The ’Jessica, would you marry me?’ story created a positive WOM for SOP without any advertisements expense.

c.       The sophisticated distribution channel in SOP is one of the major reasons that SOP accessed.

d.       The 7-day refund policy reduce risk for customers. And it really works!

Sydney--Google

GOOGLE

 Google logo & Canteen

GOOGLE!!!! YEAH!! One of my favourite companies in the world!! I cant believe I have the chance to visit it and have the marketing team members to present in front of us!!! Awesome! When we come to Google, the green plant wall attached with wooden ‘Google’ logo impressed every MMSP members; we took pictures in front of it. Everyone got excited. We cant wait!! We entered into Google workplace; it was the most amazing office in the world I have never seen before, the canteen, Café, game rooms, rest rooms, are soooooo attractive to me. I was daydreaming I may get a chance to work there one day. J We followed James Toepfer who working in Google marketing team, he introduced to us all the rest rooms and game rooms are not just for relaxing but brainstorming and employees mostly work in it. That is soooo amazing!!!

Rest room

Game room

Led by James, we entered into a bright lecture room. The lecture sets in front attached ‘Google’ logo by using different colors of glass stone with decorative patterns.

 

the lecture set in Google office

James told us Google used to be a company with small marketing focused on PR. But nowadays, Google has 700 marketers around the world. 90% of revenue came from advertisements that marketing team attracted. Google focuses on users, making magic by using marketing as a bridge. Consumers nowadays become more and more smart. They know how to search information in short time by using different devices, such as smart phone, tablet, PC and other digital products. Therefore, in order to meet customers’ increasing needs for timely information, Google emphases on searching ability and innovation of relevant products. James mentioned popular communication channels such as, mobile and YouTube become more and more popular as the growing needs of information sharing and searching ability. Business model changed driven by advanced consumer’s technology. Advertisements are reshaped by consumers changing media choices. After James, Suzy Nicoletti the industry manager in Google presented to us ‘How Google Marketing Works’ with a case study. Showing us research content about how consumers choose a university. The main objectives of university advertising themselves including ‘‘Increase student acquisitions; Strengthen university profile in domestic and international markets, increase post graduate student acquisitions’’ Suzy used case study to show us the effectiveness of advertising through digital media and online channel. After these two nice Google’s people presentations, Katherine and Alan represented MMSP handed red wine and certificate as a thank-you gift for James and Suzy.

Gold Coast---Southern Cross Austereo

Southern cross Austereo

After we checked out, we headed to Southern Cross Austereo at 12.00 midday. The general manage Paul Barlett came and introduced SCA for us.

We are so lucky as Paul told us SCA moved to a new working place this year from an old, messy, dusty office. Paul show us around the company. It is modern, smell fresh and new. The red wall, yellow wood desks, brand new computers and facilitates make SCA a fantastic place to work. Paul also show us how radio show works, DJ records the radio show be forehead, and put it into a record system. The new equipments make things quick and easy. Paul and his colleague gave us a brief introduce for how marketing and branding work in SCA. As there are two 

kinds of customers SCA are trying to maintain. The first one is audience, the second one is companies who put their advertisements in the gap of radio shows. For the first type, SCA maintain them by producing high quality radio performance. Therefore, the content of each radio show is important for SCA. Before creating good radio show, it is also vital for SCA to know what audience’s lifestyle is. For example, Gold Coast people are outdoorsy, sporty. Hence, the radio content should have relevant stuff about travelling and sports. For the second type, SCA use sponsorship, events to attract the new customers. Paul and his colleague also mentioned website is a way to interact with people, different voice and comments from audiences give them various insights to improve the brand. Social media for SCA is a framework for them to engage people. But it also requires resource to use social media, such as people who should spend time to respond audiences comments, financial support to hold activities and giving financial reward for employees, audiences and clients. Social media helps to build a good brand for 

SCA, and a good brand also protect company’s image from inside. However, traditional channels should not be ignored. SCA still uses outdoors, billboards, radio advertisements to gain awareness from potential customers. All communication channels work intergrately to create the best communication effects. 

Gold Coast---Sea World

Sea World is a really interesting place to visit. All the rides, pools, parks and performances are attractive to me. We went to the Image Dolphin Show firstly. The smart dolphins there performed a fantastic show to us.

We touched the doplins, took pictures with them and had much fun!!! 

The lovely dolphin is swimming around the pool

The dolphin trainer explained to us how they train the dolphins and how they raise them.

I realised each dolphin has his own personality as human being, they have different ability to learn, different interests for different things, some of them have strong ability to learn the move trainers teach them, some of them might just not enthusiastic about giving good performance. After the trainer, Selena who is the started to talk about the Sea World marketing strategies they are employing. Selena told us research is really important to Sea World as it helps them to collect customer feedback and understand what they need. There was one point she said really impress me, she said ‘What we do is not just about marketing, sales and branding, it is all about how it affect the daily business we run.’ I realised that all the marketing activities should go back to the organization objective and fit with the daily business which the organization run. That is the reason why research is important to Sea World. Research make organization know what their strengths and weaknesses are. For Sea World, there are lots of channels to sell their tickets, such as online selling, it covers 50%-60% of selling channel. The other like front gate selling, in flight sale, call center, local resellers such as hotels, all these channels work together. In order to meet customers needs, there are also different kinds of tickets packs for people to choose. For instance, the VIP pack, seasonal tickets (price will fluctuate according to seasons), $99.99 free for all theme parks visit. Selena emphasized that volume sale is vital for Sea World to earn money. Another beautiful lady, Rebbecca, she is digital marketing manager in Sea World, she explained to us how digital marketing works in Sea World. Website is one of the effective and main sales channel of Sea World. However, complicated design and over content of the website may confuse customers, therefore, it is vital to employ effective content strategy knowing what to say, how to say and when to say it. Online marketing for Sea World is not just a selling tool but also a branding tool.  It contains people’s voice and how they think about their experience and interests of Sea World. Hence, Sea World is trying to build a communication community for customers to attract and maintain people’s attention toward Sea World. Other than official website, Sea World also used facebook to communicate with customers, again, Rebbecca emphases content is important for facebook, information should be useful and interesting to customers, all things in fb should be relevant to customers. Even though online marketing is quite important tool for branding and selling, the traditional marketing should not be ignored, such as the catalog, front gate selling, TV commercials and many others.

 

After meeting with Selena and Rebbecca, we got free time until 4pm, we went to the Shark Bay to see the sharks. Taking rides, walking around.

 

In the afternoon, we go to beach near our hotel, it is soooo fun to walk on the soft sand along the beach, we swim and play in the sea water which made us enjoy Gold Coast beach very much.

At night, we go to the fish market, lots of cute and lovely girls stuff there. lol