Untitled

[sukizh1999]

Identifying the heavy-weights in the social network to raise awareness

From a western perspective, it seems absurd how such a colorist view can be promoted in mainstream media. In the US, it is without question that products such as whitening cream would be stoned and hung at the city gates; it’s not a challenge for a campaign like WOW to take off given the progressive culture here. But, as someone who grew up in China and still follow Chinese media, I understand firsthand the iron hold that colorism has in society, and just how hard it can be to change the belief. In the same way many in India associate fairness with attractiveness and success, China does the same, if not more. In China, parents force their children to drink milk in hopes of lighter skin, women use umbrellas when even a sliver of sun is out, and countless skin-whitening tips pop up in mainstream media everyday. 

How should we get into the minds of customers and change their perspective? I think WOW’s approach of roping in celebrities was the right one. Much of the favoritism towards lighter skin is perpetuated by the looks and commentaries of famous celebrities. In China, celebrities are actively praised for having porcelain skin; it would often be a defining feature of a given celebrity. To bring the issue of colorism to light, it would have to start with the celebrities who set the mainstream beauty standards. In east asia, the influence of celebrities on their fans is huge, and celebrities’ words are often held in high regard. Fans aspire to look like and be like their favorite star, so targeting the influential people within a network would give campaigns such as WOW the best chances of taking off. 

In terms of our project, we are aiming to brand Something Brazen to appeal to angel investors. I think we should look for people with more influence in the network to allow Something Brazen to take off more quickly. Similar to the WOW campaign’s target of celebrities to raise awareness, it is also important that our brand uses the endorsement of trustworthy investor figures to drive the appeal of Something Brazen. When we were doing research into other women-targeted products and campaigns, many of their websites also featured endorsements from influential figures such as founders and CEOs. We will seek to incorporate that into the branding. 

[sukizh1999]

The first lap is the most important

As I think about our branding product, Something Brazen, one of the sticking statements from the article was: “The first step in predicting demand for new-to-the-world products is understanding what factors inherent in those products will either encourage adoption or hinder adoption among target customers.” Our product strives to level out the start-up field for all genders, which puts it in a category with other products that are also tackling gender inequity. The issue with this category is that it has become so topical that you can throw a rock and hit a product within it; and what makes it worse, is that many of these products are more-or-less ‘girlboss’ social campaigns that leave an unremarkable but remarkably-sour taste in the mouths of many. Because of this, we don’t want Something Brazen to automatically turn off angel investors and people seeking investments (of all genders) because they assumed we are just another ‘shallow social cause’ . Instead, we need to communicate the integrity and success rate of Something Brazen while also letting them know that the core pillar is championing opportunities for all. 

In terms of predicting the rate we reach product potential, I believe it will be reached slowly. Given that the platform popularity relies on the size of the network (where as the network grows, the rate at which it grows is non-linear), it is super important that the first few customers we acquire are satisfied enough with the product that the network grows through word-of-mouth. Similar to the Polytrack and its slow takeoff in the horseracing world, Something Brazen aims to strike deep with its first few acquisitions to gain trust and traction (no pun intended), and that means our branding has to be extra communicative of the effectiveness of the product itself with complementary packaging that doesn’t deter customers before they even engage. 

As we try to brand Something Brazen to be a legitimate platform that truly champions raising female entrepreneur, it is very important that we take the extra step to understand what has and has not worked in this environment, and how to avoid leaving the same tart taste for our target customers whom have many other options for investing and seeking investments in.

[sukizh1999]

Employee empowerment is key

As I think about all the SIA employees’ alignment in terms of company belief and culture, I think back to another blog post that was featured in class that spoke of internal company discourse when Facebook switched to Meta. In the case of SIA, it seems the strong pride that the company has for its employees carried to the employees themselves, and they feel self-motivated to go above and beyond to defend the company culture. This is also a great example of consistent branding; the company executives themselves understand that its the service people that carried the company to where it is at present, and they invest extra efforts to develop talent to maintain this consistent great service throughout the SIA customer journey. 

Singapore Airlines understands that the core of their success lies with the above and beyond service they provide to their customers. By continuously understanding the customer journey as well, they pushed to carry the SIA service along the entire journey to truly make a memorable experience for all who fly through SIA. It is impressive how well they maintained employee alignment to this culture of service too. To have the employees take pride in their work and individually defend the reputation of a whole company at every step is a great business strategy that more service industry companies who want consistent branding should learn from. 

Relating to our branding project, one of the main goals we want to achieve is to brand Something Brazen to be female entrepreneur-empowerment platform without giving off the ‘girl boss-era’ vibe that has gone sour for so many. To accomplish this, we need to make sure all that all players in the platform— the angel investors and the entrepreneurs, of all genders— understand the core brand of Something Brazen as an investing platform that truly champions equitable investment, and that it is not just another social act project. Once people are onboard, it would only take the people on the platform to defend the culture and brand of Something Brazen to sway the images that newcomers have for the platform! The SIA case showed the power that aligned employee belief has, and it is important that Something Brazen facilitates the same for the people involved. 

[sukizh1999]

How the Compromise Effect reduced my rent prices

One of the nudging techniques the paper mentioned briefly was the idea of ‘the compromise effect’, where when presented with three options, people usually go for the middle option. 

A similar technique I learned in Power and Negotiations with professor Lu was the idea of offering a diversity of options to your negotiation partner to make yourself seem more reasonable and rational (reasonable in the sense that the partner technically gets to make the final decision, and rational in the sense that it makes you seem like you're taking more perspectives and willing to compromise). 

I had an experience negotiating my lease last spring that employed these technique. Two days before I moved into my apartment, I visited the unit and realized that the living space was carpeted-- not what I had signed my lease for. Given that I now had a lot more leverage in the negotiation, I communicated the following options, written on paper, to the leasing office: 

Give me my original apartment (floor 8, worst view) with the carpeting removed

Give me a better apartment (top floor, good view) at a $200/month discount (What I really wanted)

Give me the best apartment in the building at $400/month discount

As expected, they called me an hour later to confirm option 2. 

Why was it successful? In terms of negotiating strategy: it made me look reasonable since the leasing office makes the final call, and because I looked reasonable enough, I was able to end the physical discussion with these three options and wait for their call later-- all while maintaining good relations with the offie albeit my ‘outrageous’ requests.

But after I read this paper on nudging, I realized that some of the ‘compromise effect’ was in play as well. Without looking at the context of the options, the structuring of the three options nudged the leasing offices to choose the middle option. Then, when we factored in the context of the options, options 1 and 3 were both not the most viable options, but one was low-end and one was high-end-- which made the leasing office see Option 2 as the best one!

A Sloan education really works wonders IRL :)

Here’s my nightly view from Option 2!

[sukizh1999]

The same sun-- but Heineken flew too close while Modelo tanned below

Consumers of imported beers are more willing to try new things, so the main marketing strategy is to sell the new ‘foreign’ experience in a bottle. Heineken benefited from the novelty effect of a foreign beer when it was the top choice of very few foreign beers in the US market; with new entrants though, relying on the brand image that “it is simply the best’ because of its historical successes is not enough to woo the now option-saturated consumers. In addition, looking at the main consumer base itself: this is a crowd of young, affluent beer drinkers who are willing to pay a higher premium for the ‘fresh and new’, so not having an evolving brand image to befit this crowd is a mistake on Heineken’s part. 

Heineken’s hubris was the main vulnerability of its earlier marketing campaigns, and this is highlighted by the dichotomy with Modelo’s US marketing strategy.  Modelo knew since the beginning of the challenges of entering the US beer market. But with the almost-familial executive style of the corporation-- and correlated with that-- the goal of staying true to its Mexican heritage, Modelo successfully communicated a consistent and fun brand image to all corners of the states, even sometimes at the expense of profit sacrifice. Looking more deeply at Corona’s strategy: their blanket marketing campaign across the US might have been risky, but it worked surprisingly well! “Fun, Sun, and Beach” fits the exact vibes of the sunny and humid southern states, but it also set Corona as the aspirational ‘vacation’ drink-of-choice in the winter-for-half-the-year northern/central states! With its clear-cut brand image of ‘fun, sun, and beach’ from ‘a hotter latitude down south’, Modelo carved out its corner of blue skies and yellow sand in the mindmap of US consumers. 

My main takeaway from this case is the concept of building an evolving brand image based on the changing population and competition. Another takeaway is that I need a Corona Extra with lime in this 30 degree Boston weather, ASAP!