BUTTER AND FREEDOM

Advertising

Would you buy a product because of an advertisement？Advertisements are everywhere. So, What is the purpose of advertising？what’s different between advertising and promotion?

Advertising is to build a long-term positive brand attitude by shifting consumers to the brand. Promotion is now the short-term tactical goal of advancing brand sales.（Percy, L. 2016)

The advertising development process includes the following sections

Background analysis
Determination of marketing & advertising objectives
Budget planningtarget audience identification
Advertising strategy
Identification of core message
Development of campaign
Testing
Implementation
Monitoring and evaluation

The two most important ones are identification of core message and development of campaign. About choice of advertising appeal, our lecturer also told us that rational appeals was only 10 percent. The purpose of advertising is to sell more branded products or services. Although advertisements are everywhere nowadays, about 70 percent of consumers believe that advertisements are not true and often contain a lot of false and exaggerated information. However, most people accept the advantages of advertisements because they are a source of information. The goal of many forms of advertising is to attract attention, whether it’s celebrity endorsements, or music, slogans and slogans. Effective advertising must be from the consumer’s point of view, and persuasive. One of the key relationships between a consumer and a brand is trust. Developing a communication strategy and positioning strategy helps establish how managers deal with the two core communication objectives of brand awareness and brand attitude. The first is mainly to select the target audience, the second is to understand the decision of the target audience, the third is to determine the best position, then develop a communication decision, and finally set up a media strategy.（Percy, L. 2016)

In the class, I chose the advertisement of BMW 3 series for analysis. This advertisement not only conveys the clear line, outline and technology of BMW 3 series, but also reflects its cutting-edge quality, joy and passion. The BMW 3 series is aimed at car enthusiasts and people who want to buy cars. Intended Message is that has modern clear-cut lines, customers and technologies that speak to its cutting-edge quality. Medium Chosen is social media, TV.

After lunch, in class, the teacher told us about Bolney Bubbly, and all we had to do was think of an advertisement for it. My team and I came up with a special story for this sparkling wine to make it more appealing.After lunch, in class, the teacher told us about Bolney Bubbly, and all we had to do was think of an advertisement for it. The story behind the product makes sparkling wine more attractive and valuable，I think that’s the magic of advertising！

Social media has also played an important role in our lives, providing a new way to deliver advertising. This allows us to get a lot of information from advertisements, but have we ever thought about the issue of advertising and morality, whether advertisements lead to harmful behaviors of consumers, or whether some people may blindly buy products they do not need because of advertisements, what constitutes unethical behaviors of advertisers?

references: Percy, L. and Rosenbaum-Elliot, R. (2016) Strategic Advertising Management. Fifth Edition: Oxford.

First Dragons' Den

Last Friday, December 6th, our group showed our bright idea to the judges, classmates and teachers, Dragons’ Den is a place to show our business idea, although we think about our idea from the start, but there are still many problems, the experience of the Dragons’ Den, let’s get a lot of constructive Suggestions from the judges, we got a lot of feedback, we might be a little fuzzy on some issues, but not everything is perfect, it is a learning process, we will make our thoughts more further clear, although they have practiced many times, but came to power in the face of so many classmates and teachers and the judges became tense. But I believe I will do better and better each time.

Our idea was to design second-hand clothes shops for asians, and this idea came from our experience that for us asians living in the UK, we often couldn’t find clothes that fit us, that didn’t fit us in terms of size and style. The idea is not only environmentally friendly but also solves the problem of people like us. As a team, we met many times to get our ideas into action, even though we had no background. We have all promoted our products within the specified time, including requirements, product content, competitors and market, etc. The feedback from the judges helps us better understand our products and some problems that have not been considered. We will continue to improve our ideas. We found our ideas through empathy, brainstorming, and helping the Asian population solve their needs. In the Dragon’s Den competition, how to express our ideas clearly and make everyone understand, we rehearsed for this many times, just looking forward to this day, want to be more confident to show everyone.

Our first customers may be our friends, because we would like to tell our friends what we think, they are also studying in the UK in the Asian community, they will be interested. We have a cool name, AS-zone, AS like Asian.

This simulated dragon’s den competition let us know our shortcomings and learned a lot from it. Both ideas and speeches need to be improved and hard work. Some problems may be unclear expression. The point of pride is that we like to refer to notes for previous speeches, but this time we are off script, hahaha. : )Pitching is not an easy thing to do, so we keep practicing, over and over again. It’s not enough to just talk about our products, we have to understand how our business works, we have to think about our competitors, our costs and benefits, a 5-minute speech and a 10-minute q&a. State our ideas and advertise our products clearly. The other team is also very good, very confident, believe that next time I will do better.

Next, we’ll think about and refine the Suggestions the judges give us, such as where we collect our clothes, And some ideas need to be clearly expressed.

A special experience

In the fourth week of the design thinking course, I had a very special experience with my team members. I never thought the course could be in this form.

I played different roles with two other partners. I played a mute, while the other two played a robot and a blind. In this game, the robot needs to help the blind from the classroom to the bathroom at the end of the corridor, and the mute can only act as an observer. The three of us play the role of impassability, standing in a different position, as my mute, observe if there is no robot, so difficult to complete this series of actions for the blind, the blind can very cautious slow to touch everywhere, their heart is very fear, they don’t know the situation around, not only by the ear to listen to, with the hand to touch and they were terrified by the sounds around them, and the robot and I were able to take the blind man to the bathroom. That class impressed me very much!

After the game, we use the empathy map canvas to describe what each of our characters feels, hears and thinks from different perspectives. Without a doubt, this is the most interesting class I have ever had. We need to learn, but what we need more is to get and learn from this experience, because it’s a process. If it’s just boring theoretical knowledge, I don’t think anyone is interested. In entrepreneurship, we need to feel and experience in person, so that we can understand our target population from various aspects and obtain useful information.

In the seventh week, our group went to marks & spencer, we observed items in the supermarket, people’s behavior, finally we decided to redesign label, we found that some people in the supermarket this inspiration is because when standing in front of the shelves selected items, blocking the others and therefore becomes very crowded, so we came up with a good idea, is to add qr code on the label, so that each customer can scan qr code to get the detailed information of the item, can solve a lot of people surrounded in a flurry of supermarket. When we go to the supermarket, I think of myself as a customer, and I look around and think about what is not perfect, what would be easier and more convenient if there were improvements, and we observe customers in the supermarket, and after every action they take, we think about what could be improved.

To build empathy with others, we need to see the other person’s emotions, try to communicate with him, and fully accept and agree with his point of view. The empathy map helps companies to supplement the implementation framework for developing empathy based on consumer needs from seven perspectives. In my opinion, it is not only a convenient tool, but also a design thinking way that allows us to maintain empathy when using tools.Putting thinking and feeling elements at the center, in the mind, and emphasizing the differences between thoughts and feelings that can be observed, add some thought-provoking questions that make it easier for team members to promote practice.

Branding

What is the difference between a brand and a commodity?

Brands give value to commodity, Products are easily replaced, but when brand is added, they become specific products in the market, because customers have certain loyalty to specific products.

Value of branding
For organisation a brand is a source of financial return, a legal statement of ownership, it's a sign, a name, that distinguishes it from other goods.
Brands allow organizations to create differentiation, build brand loyalty, protect themselves from competition, and enhance their influence over retailers. On the other hand, brand is a kind of guarantee and promise for customers.

Points-of-parity VS Points-of-difference

Parity point means that a brand may have some similarities with other brands, and it is an element that a brand needs to be considered in the eyes of consumers. Point of difference is the differences between a company or service and its competitors. Good differences will increase customer interests and brand loyalty.

In my opinion, there are many kinds of commodities in the market, but different brands give value to the commodities and make the commodities unique. For customers, they choose the commodities of a certain brand because they trust the brand and they believe in the guarantee of quality. The Internet has become a way for consumers to delegate purchasing decisions to smart shoppers, who can learn which prices and brands they want to choose. The Internet also allows consumers to exchange information and their passion for brands online. On the one hand, this strengthens the connection between brands and other consumers, which is an opportunity for enterprises, but on the other hand, it is also a threat, because higher transparency may increase the number of competitors.(Dall’Olmo Riley,F ,2016)

Let’s talk about brand positioning, Starbucks, for example, does not define itself as a mere coffee shop. It is a place for thinking and imagination, a place for gathering and talking, and a comfortable harbor with a sense of community. In the competition, a general brand has found its own positioning, an excellent brand advantage and can locate its category. A consumer USES a brand of product, and if his task is perfectly resolved, he will continue to use it the next time. Over and over again, consumers begin to connect with the brand and a good brand story will also enhance the customer’s impression of the brand in favor.

Brand mantras refers to an expression of the core spirit of a Brand, usually a 3-5 word phrase expressing the essence of the Brand connotation and Brand positioning. Core brand

Mental map Consciousness map is a method to help organizations find the positioning of brands. It is similar to the process of association. It is like asking consumers what they will associate when they see the logo. Next I will put a slide in the content, is a few famous companies of the brand mantras.

BRAND ME POSTERS & PRESENTATIONS

Reference
Dall'Olmo Riley, F. (2016) 'The roles of brands revisited', pp. 394-414

Intellectual Property

In the fifth week, Nick Bennett intellectual property conference made me really start to understand different types of intellectual property related to creative enterprises, such as copyright and trademark. Week 9 meeting with Naomi Korn Associates about licenses, contracts and social media.

What is Intellectual Property？

Intellectual Property right is the exclusive right that the right holder enjoys according to law to the result that intellectual labor creates and the mark in management activity. Types of Intellectual Property are Copyright, Patents, Trademarks, Industrial designs, Geographical Indications, Trade secrets.http://www.wipo.int/about-ip/en/. Intellectual property protection enables people to gain recognition and economic benefits from their innovations or creations.

Copyright Protects the work and prevents others from using it without permission. Original literary, music and artistic works, photography, illustrations, film and television videos, radio, written and theatrical works will be protected by copyright when created. For most types of writing, copyright lasts at least 50 years and for photographs at least 25 years.http://www.gov.uk/copyright

What is Creative Commons？

Creative Commons is a non-profit organization dedicated to building a global sharing of knowledge and culture. The types of licenses are CC BY，CC BY SA, CC BY NC, CC BY ND, CC BY NC SA, CC BY NC ND.

CC BY - Attribution 
CC BY SA - Attribution Share Alike
CC BY NC - Attribution Non-Commercial
CC BY ND -  Attribution No Derivative
CC BY NC SA - Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike
CC BY NC ND - Attribution Non-Commercial NO Derivative

BY - You can copy freely, but you must trust the author and keep his name.
SA - May freely copy, if changes to this work, under the same terms of license as this work, can distribute the derivative works produced by this work.
NC - This work may be reproduced and displayed freely, but may not be used for commercial purposes.
ND - May freely copy and distribute the work, but may not change the work.

Intellectual Property in China have been acknowledged and protected since the 1980s. In 1980, China became a member of the World Intellectual Property Organization(WIPO). WIPO currently has 192 member states, 188 of the UN member states. In China, the copyright period is the life of the author plus 50 years.

Intellectual property plays an important role in enterprises. Strengthening the protection of intellectual property rights can enable enterprises to enjoy the market benefits brought by intellectual property rights, avoid the loss of intellectual property rights, and ensure the safety of enterprise operation. Innovation is the soul of intellectual property. No matter trademark right, copyright or patent, if it is not effectively protected, competitors will obtain intellectual property at a low cost through imitation, replication and other improper means, which not only disrespects the original author but also damages the interests of others. Learning about intellectual property will help me a lot in my future career, at least if the company fails to provide good property protection.The protection of intellectual property is the protection of creators and the protection of innovation.

Entrepreneurial Finance

Profit & Loss

The Profit and Loss statement is like a video, it is recording the company’s revenuer and expenses over a period of time (maybe a month, quarter, or year).

Profit and Loss = Income — Expense

The five levels of profit
1. Gross Profit is the profit made directly from sale products or services.
2. EBITDA is Earning Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization.
3. Operating Profit (EBIT, Earing Interest and Tax, or Trading profit)
4. Profit Before Tax (Net Profit Before Tax, or Earnings)
5. Profit After TAx (Net Profit After Tax, or Net Earnings)

Balance Sheet

The Balance Sheet Statement contains important information about the business. It is like a photograph. It is a statement of the assets, liabilities and owners’ equity owned by the company. It shows the assets a business holds and how those assets are financed.

Assets— Liabilities = Shareholders’ Equity

Debits and Credits, For all financial statements, debits and credits are the most basic components, and each debit must have a corresponding credit. It could be in the income statement, it could be in the balance sheet, but they have to balance, and if one side is out of balance, there must be something wrong. An asset, for example, is an increase in the debit and a decrease in the credit.

Cash Flow is the net amount of cash and cash-equivalents being transferred into and out of a business.

10 ways to improve the Cash Flow
Improve Profitability
Get Customers to Pay with Order
Collect Payments using Direct Debit
Optimise Stock Levels
Speed Everthing up
Factor your Debt
Negotia Better Supplier Terms
Invest in Credit Control Procedures
Asset Financing
Delay paying your Suppliers

For example, Carl’s cafe, gross profit is total sales minus cost of sales. Fixed monthly expenses such as wages and rent are Fixed Costs. Fixed Costs is a cost that does not change with an increase or deccrease in the amount of goods or services produced or sold. On the contrary, Varible Cost is a cost of labor, material or overhead that changes according to the change in the volume of production units. (Simon, 2019)

Karen and Joe (2008) mentioned that Entrepreneurs can read income statements, Balance Sheets and Cash Flow statements to get a clearer picture of the company’s profitability. Financial statement is the dynamic analysis of the historical data of an enterprise. It is the prediction and analysis of the future based on the study of the past, so that the company can make a correct decision. Through the analysis of the Balance Sheet, the company can understand its financial status, and judge its solvency and liquidity adequacy. Through the analysis of Profit and Loss statement, understand the analysis of the company’s profitability, profitability and empirical efficiency. By analyzing the Cash Flow statement, we can understand and evaluate the company’s ability to acquire cash and predict the company’s future cash flow.

Simon, H. (2019)  UCL Entrepreneurial Finance.
Karen, B. and Joe, K. (2008)  Financial Intelligence for Entrepreneurs: what you really need to know about the numbers.

The Design Museum

The fifth week of design thinking, before that, I visited the design museum with my team members. I have to say, I saw a lot of interesting things there. It’s a collection of innovative designs nominated for 12 months by design experts from around the world. These include fashion, graphic design, digital, transportation and products. Design is everywhere in our lives, whether it’s transportation, whether it’s a piece of clothing, all of these objects, services or systems that are designed.

What problem is this product solving, who is it designed for, why is it relevant, and we go to the design museum with a list of questions, we chose the three products that we thought were the most innovative, and we showed our speech to our classmates and teachers in class.

Self-Driving Shuttle Bus GACHA

Designed by MUJI in collaboration with sensible 4, this is the first driverless bus to operate even in bad weather. Sensible 4 found out when it was first designed that the bus wouldn’t work in light rain, so with modifications they solved this problem. It solves the problem of people traveling safely in bad weather conditions.

MEGA SWITCH

This is a product designed by IKEA, which solves the problem of difficult to find the switch button for the elderly and disabled. It is very useful.

Rethinking the meal tray, this product was designed for customer with flight.

These products are people-oriented, to meet the needs of people. The process from idea to practice is a five-step process in design thinking. Behind every innovative design is a reason, perhaps to solve a problem. I have to sigh, some products look very ordinary, but very practical, considering its functionality, can bring convenience to people’s life, although some small changes. There are so many steps from an initial idea to the final prototype. Just like the driverless shuttle bus, I did some information research and learned that currently driverless vehicles can only drive in good weather and clear road markings. However, this gacha has improved this deficiency when it is designed, so that it is not affected by the weather and people can travel safely. It is so cool!

Here is a focus on thinking about the relationship between design and life. The design maker user showcases nearly 1,000 designs across a wide range of design disciplines, I met a 1980 keyboard by Stephen Hobday and Lilian malt. From mobile phones to computers, generations of innovative products have been designed. A product, service, or system is constantly evolving, requiring observation, research, and communication with users for information. Today, with the development of science, from digitalization to artificial intelligence, every research has brought convenience to life and improved the quality of life. We should pay more attention to our life. Maybe it’s just a small detail, but it can make a big difference. Finally, I want to say, it was a great experience to visit the design museum and visited a lot of innovative designs.

A special pair of shoes

Three weeks ago, In the design thinking class, we made a special pair of shoes. This is the first time I’ve been involved in designing a shoe, and I’m not very good at crafting. (haha)But I have to admit, it’s fascinating, right?

In this design thinking lesson, our task is to design special shoe. Before that, we started with an interview, we walked out of the classroom and interviewed some people on campus. Every interview, we can get a lot of information, an interview we can get more real ideas. The people we interviewed were also happy to talk, they were very interested in discussing shoes with us. so that face-to-face interviews made our conversations more real and interesting. Our questions included what kind of shoes do you like, what aspects of shoes do you think are the most important, what color do you like and so on. Through these questions to understand people’s different needs for shoes. We often don’t understand why it is so difficult to meet the needs of customers. In fact, we ignore that there is a reason behind the design of every item. This is why we need to use empathy in design, from a design thinking point of view, we need to observe, to think about what is most important to them, what they need most, human-centered, to design a shoe that meets people’s needs.

The above is the interview result of four people in our group, we were interviewed campus library.

We went back to the classroom and started thinking about what kind of shoes we were going to design. After discussion, we decided to design a pair who are insecure about showing their whole feet. We consider that some people may feel insecure about exposing their toes, so we have designed a sandal that can protect their toes well for those who need it. it would be game-changing to be able to create sandals for both women&men who are insecure about showing their whole feet. It’s a creative idea, isn’t it?

This is the prototype of design thinking, and we took some materials and started to design our shoes boldly. This process is very interesting because it’s a process of turning an idea into a product. This step requires us to present our ideas so that we can understand the original intention of our design, and finally show our results to the students in the class. This let me know how important creativity is in the design process, from the analysis of problems to solving problems for customers. This process requires a combination of ideas and practices. In the team, we combine and use the viewpoints of different people to conceive our whole plan and finally present it in the design of products.

Through practical courses to learn the theory of design thinking, the course has become expected. In design thinking, we need to understand the motivation behind everything, because motivation is what makes us act, to better for the customer to propose the best solution.

Hackathon

In the welcome week, we took part in Hackathon with the Surrey County Council. The activity was for two days.

On the first day, Surrey members spoke to us about some of the issues facing the surrey community and community services, which gave us a better understanding of the surrey council group. So, we should come up with some ideas to make Surrey communities have a better life. after introduced activity, We form a group from different countries,This gives us a different perspective and context. We spent our lunch hour interviewing strangers about their opinions and satisfaction with the town. It was the first interview I faced, and the answer we got was that most of them were satisfied with their lives. A few had disputes with their neighbors about the garden, after that, our group members get together to discuss and analyze, which is my favorite part. We create different roles and imagine the problems these roles might encounter in the community.

We really want to come up with some ideas to make life better for people in surrey, considering that many single dads need support, we designed an online community for all single dads living in Surrey area to come together and help each other alleviate loneliness and challenges, we called ‘HAPPY DADS’. Using the ’empathy’ we learned in class, we imagine ourselves as the single dad, putting ourselves in his shoes to think about the problems he might face and the help he might need, We put forward different ideas, like shared activities, chores, and experiences. Finally, we reached a consensus and designed a poster. The lecturer in class showed us how to finish our poster online, and the picture above is our result, which is wonderful!!

I enjoy this way of cooperation, everyone has different ideas and we discuss and design together. Despite the challenges we faced from the beginning, some of the ideas were not mature enough, we showed our ideas to other students in the exercise and listened to some of their suggestions, by the way, I told about eight students about our idea, I got a good workout in the process and made me more confident. We continue to refine our content and posted, we presented our plans to the surrey team and got some feedback. We went through the five steps of design thinking, It is like empathy, connecting people emotionally.

With the help of our lecturers, we had a very valuable experience. I felt the importance of teamwork and knew the steps of design thinking. I like this module very much, because the practice course can learn better which is more interesting than theoretical knowledge. Whether it’s interviews or teamwork, good communication is necessary for us to get more information. I am also very grateful to the members of our group who gave me a lot of encouragement.

Frieze Art Fair

Designed by Frieze magazine, regent’s park in central London, The annual Frieze Art Fair is held. for three months. This is my first time to visit the art fair. Even though I had read the information and the introduction before I went, I was still nervous. I didn’t know who I would meet and what questions I would ask them. But I have to say it was a great experience. Morgner (2014) believes that the art fair is like a network, which gathers works of art together and forms an art market. Here you can see works of different styles in different periods. The following are some of my favorite works.

The art fair is like a platform that brings dealers and collectors together, People exchange information with each other. It is business to business, also business to customers. Brian and Jesper (2011) mentioned that sponsors have gained more competitive opportunities in the art fair. For artists, they can better display their reputation on this platform. Visitors include art lovers, artists, collectors, painters, and curators, as well as the general public. Frieze London is more focused on contemporary art and attracts a lot of visitors.

The overall layout of Frieze Art fair is relatively simple, with artistic works presented one by one. Here is a collection of works of art masters of all levels. The center is the exhibition area for emerging artists, both independent and group exhibitions, which I think should be the focus. The exhibition hall also has a dining room area and reading room. Due to the large flow of people, the whole exhibition hall is noisy. Frieze week magazine is also free. Not only are there paintings, photographs, but also some artifacts, as I showed in the gallery above, a huge artifact. The following picture shows the layout of some exhibition halls. Each exhibition hall is marked, so that visitors can easily find where they want to go.

I am looking forward to the next art fair. Whenever I see visitors thinking about a piece of work, I think it is the embodiment of the value of art. Artworks are not only a way for artists to express their feelings, but also can bring infinite space for different visitors to think and inspire creativity.

link: https://frieze.com/fairs

Morgner, C. (2014) The art fair as network. The Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society, 44(1), 33-46.

Brian, M. and Jesper, S, P. (2011) Negotiating Values in the Creative Industries.