(Friday) February 25, 2011 - MYER

Today was the last day of the study tour. Many of us wore a colourful cloth, as we had been wearing black-white clothes for almost all the time during the study tour. Today’s presentation covered many areas like brand strategy, loyalty, sponsorship and local area marketing strategy. One thing that I thought it was very exciting was their plan and project for the new store at Bourke Street, as Myer started in 1900, meaning that it was already more than 100 years. From my perspective that I went to the new store yesterday, it looked totally new and had a feeling of ‘modern,’ which I thought that this would bring excitement to every customers who come and shop at Myer. We also learnt about how Myer communicate and engage with their loyal customers through the program ‘Myer one’ card, which helped them increase the sale overtime.

It was a little bit sad that today was the last day of the tour since we had been staying together for the whole week; however, I believed that we would not forget these experiences and memories that we got from the study tour.

Thank you MMSPA for opening my eyes to see wider, opening my ears to hear and think deeper; last but not least; thank you for giving me a chance to know these nice people from the study tour. :)

(Thursday) February 24, 2011 - L’Oreal Australia, Myer (new store @ Bourke Street), Luxottica/ OPSM Eye Hub

Today we visited L’Oreal in the morning before dropping to see Myer’s new store at Bourke Street and visiting Luxottica OPSM Eye Hub in the afternoon. At L’Oreal, I learnt from L’Oreal strategy that it is better to focus on one thing that we can do very well than try to manage several things because we might waste our time and resources in something which is not necessary. If we cannot do it well enough, it is better to cut it out. If not, this might drive the overall results down.

In the afternoon, I was very excited to see how interactive the store is. It was easy to see that this store was totally about experiential marketing, as they tried to create the most of the experiences to everyone both customers and people who accompanied them. There was also a room that customers can test their new glasses in many conditions like in the real world, which was very amazing for me to see this kind of things in the retail store. Additionally, they had an interactive playback mirror, which customers can record and play it back in order to ensure that which frame looks better on them. Everything that has been mentioned above can be seen as point of differences (PODs) for OPSM Eye Hub.

(Wednesday) February 23, 2011 - The Age, Bwired

Finally we came back to Melbourne and the first company visit in Melbourne was The Age, which first I thought that it was going to be boring, but actually it was not. First, they showed us how they operate the 3AW radio station, which looked similar to the Southern Cross Media that we visited in Gold Coast. Then, we were presented by many speakers from different departments of the Age. It was very impressive that they spared their valuable time to give us a presentation. The presentation was very informative and easy to understand because each department referred to the Saturday Age as an example in their presentation.

After we finished the visit at The Age, we had dinner and headed to Bwired for another presentation. We have learnt a lot about the trend of new media that has been increasing overtime and he was very confident that new media would overcome the traditional media like newspaper in the future. However, it is important for the website to be personalised and to keep everything right at the right place because the website was considered as a shopfront, meaning that they must have everything that customers want and it must be easy to find. If we can operate the website well, this would help companies to cut costs down, as many businesses moved out from physical store to go online. 

(Tuesday) February 22, 2011 - Google Australia Pty Ltd, Salmat

Today everyone seemed to be very excited, as we went to Google! Even though the office that we went to was the Australian one, not the US one which was the Headquarter, but we were still very excited. From this, we can see how strong the brand ‘Google’ is… When we arrived there, I found that the office was, in fact, not as big as what I thought; however, I saw that they still kept the same concept and casual feeling like what it was in the US such as the colourful wallpaper, the free foods and drinks to all employees and so forth.

However, it was very interesting that both Google and Salmat presented us the same topic, which is ‘Search Marketing.’ This might be because both companies operate in the same area that has to deal with search engine. Nevertheless, these presentations reminded me of what I learnt from electronic marketing that I enrolled last semester. I was very happy that what I learnt from the university could actually work in real life and most importantly work in the future career. 

(Monday) February 21, 2011 - Lend Lease, DDB

Today we had to visit two companies: Lend Lease and DDB. I was very happy that I had a chance to go and visit both companies, as I heard of Lend Lease before when I did management subject in the Monash College. On the other hand, I saw many cool projects from the DDB website before the tour started. That is why it made me feel so excited!

First when we went inside the building that Lend Lease office located, we found that the wall of the building is not a normal wall like other buildings. It is rock! That makes this building look more special and has more felling of being ‘Green.’ Additionally, when I saw the office of Lend Lease, it really made me want to work here. If I were an employee, I would keep looking forward to come to work everyday. I also saw that here at Lend Lease have some same facilities like Google such as providing drinks free for employees.

During the presentation, we were given an example of some projects, which all of them were about shopping centres. I have learnt that looking after the project like shopping centres is not as easy as I thought. The structure and the location of each service such as parking lot, parent room and so forth are very important aspects in delivering convenience to the customers, which directly links to customers’ satisfaction.

On the other hand, we were presented with a lot of projects, which are very creative, at DDB. This was because DDB is an advertisement company that mainly focuses on creativity, as the drive of the business. There were two projects that I love the most when I saw and heard about it. First of all was the McDonald’s playground for adults because I just looked at it, I was totally love it without any reasons. I was sure that other people would think of the same thing, as many people also wanted to turn back to kids when they grown up. This campaign can remind adults of good memories they had when they were young. Another one was the idea of ‘Cabbie-Oke’ that was created with an aim to change a perception of Telstra from ‘boring’ to ‘fun,’ which I think that it is very clever!  

(Sunday) February 20, 2011 - Free day in Sydney

Today our schedule was free! We had nothing to do in particular. Therefore, I went out to see my senior from high school. It was very nice to see her because I have not seen her for almost four years.  First we met at the hotel lobby before walking to the Sydney Opera House together, which took around fifteen minutes. Then, we decided to take a free bus to see the view around Sydney, but at the end we changed the plan a little bit because Katie, who still stayed in the hotel, called me and said that she wanted to go to Sydney Opera House as well. Therefore, we had to take a bus to go back to the hotel and came to Opera House again. Unfortunately, my senior cannot stay with me for any longer because she had a part-time job, so we did not take a bus to see the view around Sydney together.

However, it was a coincidence that during we were in the bus, Katie met her cousin and his friends, who are currently studying in Sydney; therefore, we asked them to guide us around Sydney. We got off at Opera House, took photos and then went to the Rocks Market before having coffee at Starbucks.

At Starbucks, I saw a poster about its CSR with Starbucks’ coffee farmers whose coffee is 100% responsibly grown and ethically traded. This shown that nowadays CSR becomes more and more important in the business point of view, as more customers and the community pay attention to what the company has done in order to help the society and the world. Another example in terms of CSR can easily be seen from the hotel as well, as we can see that these days each hotel will have a sigh asking whether we want to change towels or not. In other word, this is so-called ‘an environmentally friendly service.’ For the Grace hotel that we stayed in Sydney, the shampoos, hair conditioners and body lotions packaging were all mentioned ‘eco.fresh’ inferring of ‘environmental friendly’ product.

(Saturday) February 19, 2011 - Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb

Today we flew again with Virgin Blue, but this time was from Gold Coast to Sydney. There was no any company visit for today, but we went to climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the evening, which was very exciting. When we walked inside the building, we can see all the photos of celebrities who already came here to climb the bridge such as Daniel Radcliffe, Oprah and Will Smith.

After waiting for a while, we were called to walk inside the room, where we filled the form and changed to the suit they provided. During the climb, the professional climb leader explained about history of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. He said that this business occurred when one businessman had a chance to climb this bridge because his friend was an engineer who looked after the bridge. After he climbed the bridge, he thought that other people should also have a chance to see the magnificent 360-degree view of Sydney as well. That was the beginning of how small idea can transform into big business, which nowadays Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb is one of the very first thing that people must do in Sydney!

When we finished the climb, we were also asked to do the survey asking about basic personal details and our experience climbing with them, which I think that it is a very good idea because the experience at that time was still very fresh and, therefore, their opinions and feedbacks would be very accurate. After that, the company can also get those information and feedbacks in order to do the market research before trying to come out with the solutions that can help them to improve the business.