Marketing in a Digital & Cross-Cultural World

our dining place

Evolution of communication models started with one-to-one, one-to-many and many-to-many models. Just when you thought this is as complex as it could be, the customers that these organisations and marketers are only TALKING TO initially, started to TALK BACK even when they are NOT being "talked to". Nowadays organisations have to utilise technologies to crawl all corners of the virtual world for any mention, comments and feedback about your organisation and your products and services. We are now living in a world where your listeners, customers, constituents etc TALK BACK to/at you.

In the discussion of marketing in "Second Life", organisations are using the virtual worlds to perform their study of possible human reactions to simulated situations. The use of Avatars provides some sort of "out of body" experience to some individuals. One study uses a handsome / beautiful avatar to represent a less-than proportionate human to conduct business discussion in the virtual world. These beautifully-avatared-individuals are observed to have done very well in these discussions. The more surprising thing is that the positiveness and confidence developed in virtual world are carried on into their real life. An aspect for further study by psychologists?

Why did Phillips decide to sell the TV business to Chinese? Hypothesis - Selling TV is a sunset biz 'cos people don't want or don't need to watch the same programme at the same time together no more. Entertainment has become very personalised using Tablets, laptops etc. We watch what we want to watch at our own time and convenience.

Consumers are prepared to be "fair" ie. pay $1 to download a song that could be used across a few platforms. But people are not prepared to pay for the whole album. The definition of "fairness" differs across individuals and organisations. People don't want to cheat if they can.

Social media can amplify positives and negatives. But on occassions, malicious videos about your organisations or your product/service could be made and placed on Youtube. But we could also have a real issue between an organisation and a customer which exploded into a major publicity nightmare. David Carroll made a satirical song about United Airlines breaking his guitar while being transported. The video was viewed by 11.9 millions people. (www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo)

G1, G2 and G3 population profile in Malaysia
It is observed that the Chinese Newspaper subscriptions are holding steady over the years. These newspapers are mainly read by the first generation of immigrants from China, G1. G2, the children of G1, are mostly educated in the British education system with English being the primary medium of instruction. G3, being the children of G2, are encouraged to rediscover their roots and also to achieve multi-lingual capabilties to ensure releavant in an increasingly gloabalised world.

What have you won?

One friend said democracy and true support won at the end of the day. He posted a picture of the victorious candidate at the back of "winning chariot" lorry, depicting grit, courage and victory in David vs Goliath battle. Another friend is still questioning the integrity of the man who has just been elected.. To my second friend, the victorious one has technically "misled" the electorate when he fumbled over a response on whether he did or did not withdraw his name from the ballot. His supporters labelled it as an attempt at assassinating his character. To his opponents and even the neutrals, such acts are normal projectiles going back and forth between opposing camps. Is it not part of rings of fire that competing candidates must go through for the electorate to know which is the better candidate?

Two men came and asked for your hand. One has a Christian name with the necessary credentials, strong blood line and expensive gifts from his land of plenty, IF you accept his hand of marriage. The other chap, his supporters called "Huat ahhhh", was brought in from the seaside district to woo you. He promised to work hard for you with all his sincerity. The fair maiden gave her heart to the latter despite all his shortcomings. The vanguished called the maiden, "You are special.." When people said you are special, I am not sure whether it is a compliment or otherwise. Is love really blind and blinding? Did the best man win?

A third opinion I read about the election is the most interesting. Whoever win must be good for Singapore, first and foremost.

When the result was announced, majority cheered and the minority licked their wound.

May I ask the majority of the enclave, what exactly have you won?

To intervene or not?

these 3 cars dare to anyhow park with no regard to safety

I spent my Friday with my old friends on a tiny 9-hole golf course in the middle of Johor. During dinner, an interesting series of exchanges ensued when I said US is moving towards more interventionist attitude after the free-market-created property busts crisis in 2007-2009.

My learned friend responded that it was interventionist attitude that had sparked off the crisis. The US government (can't remember led by which  president) came out with ideal cum ideal that encouraging home ownership is good for the country. That ideal led to the creation of Fannie May and Freddie Mac supporting home ownership with liberal home loans. Even people with no income "benefitted" from home ownership. This injection in funds into the property sector led to property price increase, initiating second mortgages and consequently the bubble burst. (Singapore too has a policy to encourage home ownership as part of its plan to encourage Singaporeans taking a stake in the nation's future.) The home ownership ideal may caused the crisis but did anyone count the gains from that same ideal eg. lower crime rate.)

I had not verified this line cause-and-effect proposed by my learned friend but it certainly sounds like something out from Freakonomics' philosophy.

We proceeded to discuss on Obama's victory in Court to ensure every American's right to be insured. I felt that it is good for the country not to saddle the government with more future costs by transferring the costs of servicing 30 millions Americans' healthcare to the collective mass of its citizens. We certainly do not wish US doing ala-IrishGreece.

My learned friend said Obama Care is bad for the economy as this interventionist move to force insurance on every American would raise the costs of hiring and retaining labour. American businesses hesitate in hiring more given the uncertainties.

My learned friend concluded the night's discussion that US would be in their glory if they allow free market to persist as per 1970s to 1990s. ( My quick retort was that US deficits and debt levels shot up higher during those years too. Based on my vague memory of US' statistics on this front.)

My final remark - In everything in life, there would be at least two sides to a story. But we always remember.. Every action, regardless of whether with good or bad intention, has a reaction.