Now oR NeVer: 2011

2011年8月15日星期一

Ads can't make people buy something that they don't need?

I saw this ad on a book which is written by Solomon, and it brainstorms me a bit.

The picture above the text is a woman who has got full of shaving cream on her face and carrying a shave.

The main idea of content under the photo of the ad is simply saying advertisements could not force people to buy something that they do not need, for example, they would not buy many TVs in a house nor buy lots of cars that you are needed.

When I first read the ad, I do not think there are any problems, but when I read it again, I recognize it seems to have something that is not quite right. Let us step back a bit, remind ourselves what is the usage of ads. Ads are usually provided by brands and make differentiations between them and the other substitutions or brands and persuade potential customers to believe they are the best to buy and to use.

Yes, indeed, ads are not forcing people to buy their products but they are using legal methods to make you to buy their products, however, it is not a point for the headline that ads cannot make people buy something that they do not need.

Actually, people do not understand themselves well, sometimes they do not know what do they need and which is the best to choose since there are a part of the characteristics which is unknown by the individual themselves, so, when an ads that drawn the attention form the individual, the individual may find the ad interesting and may take a trail on it – they do not know if the product is suitable for them, but just like to have a go with it, to see if it is match with them or not. If they found that the product Is great, they will probably repurchase it, if not, the product might be being neglect (e.g. being put in a corner of the house) or thrown away (it is likely to happen if the product is a cheap one).

People do not care about too much and bother about information search if that is a low involvement product, sometimes they will rely on ads, choose thosewhich they are familiar with (because seen it in ads before) to make their decisions.

To conclude, ads do not forces people to buy things, but it is possible to persuade people to buy something that they do not need.

2011年8月10日星期三

Twitter VS Facebook

Twitter is the central of social media, the gust lecturer said.

I'm a experienced facebook user but a noob of twitter. I've had a twitter account for near 2 months already but I've still got no idea how to use this stuff. It's generally like something like facebook, I guess? The only different that I know between these tools is -- twitter can "follow" people without their permission, but you can't be a friend without someone's permission on facebook. Perhaps they have got some more differences, but what I discovered by now is just as simple as that. I would say twitter threat user's privacy more according to this, that's why I can't understand why do they said twitter is the central of social media, they gave me the same feelings but just from different providers. And, facebook is more popular than twitter, nearly everyone got it, but that's not what's happen in twitter. I thought the more popular the social media, the greater it is? Because it could influence people more and influence more people. So what's the point?

Anyway, I'll try to get used to use the twitter as I could search many Hiu Yan Lau from google, but none of them is me!!! That's not a good phenomenon at all.

Do you have a twitter? Do you know how to use it? Please feel free to left any comments behind.

2011年8月4日星期四

Sometimes things are more easier to read than to study

Perhaps not just "sometimes", but very often, things are more easier if just have to read it than to study it, for example, psychology.

I have got a subject which is called Organisation Behavior (actually, I have got consumer behavior as well) in this semester. What I have to say is, even if they are not my compulsory subs, I would still like to do them as their name attract me as I'm really interested in psychology -- I think this is the closest sub to our life and I believe that this would be very helpful to be well known psychology and feel free to apply some of the theories in it into our real life.

It seems that going too far way from the topic, let's step few steps backward.
There is a very little space which is about the Emotional Intelligence (EI) in my OB lecture slides, but it attract me -- because I saw it before. I have read the abstract of a journal which talks about it before. Oh my word. The journal that I read is from my housemate who is doing Psychology, and I just picked it up and read it for interest and to satisfy my curious.
I guess it would be an amazing world if we could do something just for interest but nothing else. Nonetheless, read it and can remember it are two things, there're many terms and theories around, maybe you can understand them and recognize them, but it is quite hard to remember the whole definition of it with the exact words which are in the text, and this, is exactly what the examiners want because they would just like to find out the key words form your pages long essay but not spend abundant of time to read your essays. I know, it's cruel, it's sad, but unfortunately, it's real.

I don't like the way that we're studying, I don't like the purpose that we learn either, they all sounds too down-to-earth for me and I think people are distorting a lot of wonderful things in the world as most of them are just focus on the final result but not the process of it -- they're not enjoying at all.

Imagine, if you're gonna die tomorrow, would you regret for not doing something that you're interested in today?

2011年8月2日星期二

The Gruen Transfer

we watched videos in the lecture, and i found that our lecturer loves to play those videos from this show--The Gruen Transfer, and i found that is funny and interesting, thus, i copy the name of the show down and google it.

i found the show from the official website, however, it seems that have to pay to download the previous programs, so i had just simply watched it using the youtube and tudou (perhaps it is a AUS's TV program, i couldnt find lots of data of this show through the tudou tool). But unfortunately, because the problems of the copyright, what are recorded on youtube are not the full version of the show, but, at least, i can watch some parts of the program, this makes me happy enough.

The Gruen Transfer is a TV program that usually invite some marketers to talk about ads -- how does it work, what makes it work, and the pros and cons about those ads. They do not just simply pull all the marketing theories out and push it into a very typical, academic, boring discussion section, but trying to give a very fresh, professional views to the audiences by a funny way. And this could not only just not bored me, but attract me and makes me want to know more about it, want to know how they evaluate each ad.

It is so funny, and helpful as well, I guess. So, therefore, I am gonna watch it on the TV tomorrow night at 9 on ABC channel.

Anyway, the post that i posted up there is a part of the show which talks about the ads of bottled water -- imagine, we can have water from the tape for free, and water is just water, all of them got the same taste, so how do the brands distinguish them form the others and attract people to choose their product rather than the others?

2011年7月27日星期三

擁抱這分鐘

不是Eason唱的那首擁抱這分鐘,卻是我這個sem確切的感受。

我習慣每一年都給自己一個課題,記得前年的課題是"隨心"。
因為在那之前實在給了自己太多的規限,每一天就如手錶上的秒針似的圍繞著同樣的東西轉動、跟著同樣的軌跡走,以致看不到更多應該或者不應該看到的事物。
那時的隨心,就是要自己走出局限、走出限死自己的那個框框 -- 別給自己定死一個形象,因為真正的我是一個形象百變的傢伙。
說自己是"傢伙"的人很奇怪嗎? 不好意思, This's my style.
就這樣,那個死版的世界離我遠了,我也算是比較遵從自己的positive wants多於negative wants了。

可是,慘痛的經歷告訴我,有時人都真的需要點規限的,又或者說這個世界本來就存在著天然和人為的限制,而它們都非我們控制之內的。
太多的限制造成壓力、造成自閉、造成太多的不快;但一旦沒有適當的限制,人就會變得放肆和不理結果。
這當中的均衡點我還在尋找中,這似乎對於處事方法極端的我有點難度。

今年,或者說這個sem,或者說這幾天,我發現到原來有很多東西是要是我們這刻不做就再沒機會做的了...
就如後悔為什麼沒在中學的時期多點表現自己;就如後悔當初在英國的時候的活動範圍只有學校的圖書館和home-stay的房間。
為什麼我們總要在失去過後才曉得要珍惜呢?
這次也是,就因為可能要失去了,才猛然醒覺原來有太多應該做的、應該經歷的還未曾經歷過。
想過很多,但最後回來我發現原來我還是想要一個機會 -- 即使可能會粉身碎骨但仍想盡情經歷那些只屬此刻的事。

前言好像有點太長了,是時候說說我今天所擁抱的那分鐘。
從來沒試過在樹下看書或是看筆記什麼的,所以今天就去了位於家對面的草地試試看。

一直都只是遠眺這間小木屋,這一刻,我決定向它走近