Marketing Life.

Since the crack of dawn, mankind has been pondering over the age old question; the definition of life.

I'm sure that most of you who read my previous entries, updates and articles, have noticed the avid and continual search for this definition.

Everyone has his or her own individualistic view and insight to what life holds and means, which is consequential in itself for that's how it should work out. Simply put, there is no fixed definition for life and what it holds in itself.

The past couple of days were hugely rejuvenating in itself, as it served as an awesome period away from work and a breath of fresh air. No doubt school work has wonders of its own, but it is good to learn outside the typical boundaries of logic and concepts.

And more particularly the discipline of existence and the work of creation.

No doubt I'm looking quite forward to the holidays, largely due to the fact that it'll serve as a good time to restructure (slightly) and strengthen certain aspects of my well being, as well as to further better myself in other aspects.

It will also be a good chance to spend a little time with ourselves and obviously, friends and family. Social interaction is absolutely vital for us, human beings, and I guess that's why government bodies and the world's society accept the fact and existence of holidays and breaks.

Not more than 2 hours ago, I was at the waterfront, by the bay side. Evidently soaking up in the festive mood (of which up till now, I have no answer for the reason of celebration) which included a somewhat impressive display of fireworks, a couple of awesome live performances and large numbers of people massing around for various social interactive purposes.

Well, I'm not really a fan of huge crowds (in terms of moving, pushing and weird characters) and all but I guess a little discomfort now and then makes one stronger.

And I guess events as such serve as a great rally point for people of different orientations and demographics to come together and witness something that we as human beings appreciate visually; in this case, the beauty of the fireworks.

Yet another aspect in life, for beauty and appeal is evident in our daily lives.

And as usual, I began my usual "thought-process" in the midst of my shower awhile back, pondering about the age old question which I started this post with.

I guess this puts truth to the saying "you are what you learn", for I find similarity between life and the aspect of Marketing.

Uh huh. But before you guys (especially to my fellow Media Marketing classmates who want nothing to do with the module, EVER again) navigate away upon reading this segment of the update, hear my rational.

In marketing, we learn things like the marketing mix which are the 4 Ps, segmentation, market research and about the product, place, price and promotion. Simply put, we are taught how to work towards the Needs, Wants and Demands of the consumer.

You may say, where's the link?

Well, I find life similar to marketing, simply due to the fact that Life is full of never ending Needs, Wants and ultimately, Demands.

Literally, it does not make sense, but think of this in a metaphorical sense.

I'd like to view life as a ladder. But in contrast to the commonly known "climbing up the social ladder", my perception of "ladder" is different.

Let me rephrase my quote; I'd like to view life as a never ending ladder.

To me, to live is to improve and work towards something and achieving it. Many have the perception that achieving one's personal legend often means reaching the top of the "ladder", but I somewhat disagree.

Simply due to that fact that the configuration of life in itself makes its fluid and ever moving. And that is simply supplemented by the various needs and wants we have in our path of life, and the pursuit of our personal legend.

When a want is satisfied, another one comes in and slots right in place, and I guess that's what life is about while working towards one's personal legend.

Really interesting stuff, if I may say so. And a little food for thought for you guys, I hope.

And oh yea, I really appreciate the various responses I got for the previous post and naturally, hope to hear more from you guys.

Remember to check back for articles, updates and the lot. Currently, I'm working on a new article, related to my course of study at the moment.

So yea, look out for it and till then.

Cya'll later.

The Evolution of Survival; The Minimalistic Way of Life and Subjective Demands.

Term breaks are finally here and that means its time for a good rest, as well as a couple of article catching up.

Dinner today was great; Subway with the family (as usual) at a quiet outlet (awesome-ness). That was complimented with a nice walk to digest the food as well as a trip to the supermarket around my estate thereafter for we had to get some supplies.

The "Frozen" section of the supermarket has been a personal favorite of mine when I was young, partly due to the temperature and partly due to the variety of food that is usually found there; I was fascinated by the feasibility of keeping food fresh in low temperatures.

I observed the people in the supermarket as much as I do with the products and the selling concept. What is it that makes people come back again and again to the supermarket to restock their supplies?

It voices down basically to the most fundamental concept of life; Survival.

I derived that these people in the supermarket (including myself), are here because they see it as a necessity, as a NEED, which is in this case, to buy food and other daily objects that they NEED to survive.

Sustenance, or more commonly termed, Food and water, is a very basic need of not only human beings but living creatures. in general. Without these physical needs, existence will not be possible for the body functions on these to work.

However, I begin to contrast the differences between our mode of physical survival needs now and in the ancient past. Our need for survival has indeed changed but is it for the better or the worse?

In ancient cave-men times, people had to hunt for their food. It wasn't easy, for some hunts would end in vain and they would return empty handed and would have to go hungry.

In contrast, currency has brought about convince to the people of the world today. From an literal sense, obtaining currency may seem like a "hunt" and it is but there is no doubt about the convince we the people of today have as compared to the people of hundreds and thousands of years ago.

For instance, a person living hundreds of years ago might have to milk a cow for milk. And now? All we have to do is to walk into your local provision shop to get all the "milking of a cow" in one carton; its that much simple.

We can thus say the need for survival has changed, for when one society changes and develops, so does the need or rather the mode of survival, as seen in the example above.

As society advances, trends in the market follow. Fresh and new marketing strategies are constantly implemented to cope with the rising demands of customers' varying needs.

Imagery is very important when marketing your product as successful branding will result in the consumer remembering the product the moment he sees something related to the said product.

However, recent trends in the market include packaging and customization. With the society's evolution, people pay closer attention to the packaging details as after all, human beings are more visually oriented beings.

This is evident, as I survey the supermarket and its products in the frozen section. We have what marketers call "shelf talkers" where they'll persuade consumers to purchase products and try to win them over. Flashy packaging, large fonts and unique containers surround me as I walk and browse through the groceries.

Is this how far our evolution for survival has preceded?

It is a marvel, really, to see, study and compare the growth of our medium and source of survival. However, with the advancement of society comes variety and choices and in cruel business terms, competition. Marketers have to come up with fresh new concepts in order to attract consumers.

As we develop, we'll naturally ask for more and more to satisfy our growing desire for higher standards of living and higher levels of satisfaction. Alot of emphasis is put on convince, especially food, which as mentioned, is essential for survival. What this means is that preparation of food is easier and faster. A quick browse through the section reveals a whole selection of "instant" food, all with just a microwave button away.

Convince food is controversial in recent periods due to its health benefits; there has been alot of debate surrounding the harms of consuming such products. Certainly, convince comes with a price.

This is inevitable for different people have different demands to their terms of survival.

The Evolution of our survival reflects on the society that we're living in. It is the need that spurs the people I observed in the supermarket.

So Lets just take a step back, and think about the magnitude of our evolution as human beings. And if we were to evolve further, what would become of us? Will we be eating out of infra-red waves or blue tooth signals?

I sure hope not, though someday, the time will come for the due advancements as that is the way of life; we constantly improve ourselves and our society, vice versa.

Thus be it frozen chicken wings, instant pizzas to raw meat or milk freshly obtained from a cow, the evolution of survival is no doubt in the balance and in action in our society, though they share the same purpose ultimately.

So let us define our way of living as only with that, can we fully chart our evolution and look back at our growth.

Sympathy Or Tissue Packets; What Are You Selling?

Woke up slightly earlier today as parents wanted to have lunch out. We decided to go all the way to Tiong Bahru Market to have our lunch, largely due to the fact that both of them craved for the famous vegetarian store there - a personal family favorite.

We arrived just in time for lunch and soon placed our orders. We had identical servings of vegetarian food; a combination of bee hoon, noodles and an assortment of vegetarian products.

Now, I've heard from my Father that the place is not only famous for its food but also for its abundance of "street sellers" going from table to table, selling packet tissues. Personally I've seen people like that going around in various places and often, they're either disabled or have a certain degree of impairment.
True enough, throughout our lunch there, we encountered not one but two separate groups of these "sellers". One of which consisted of a blind man and a lady, both elderly and frail looking.

I look at them and it baffles me greatly. Are they here to do a simple business of selling tissue packets or are they indirectly begging?

I feel and strongly believe that every human is kind by nature. The human mind thus works in a way that when we see someone that's either less fortunate or in a dire state of life, emotions stir. Emotions such as pity and compassion comes into play and the next natural reaction is that subconsciously, we will find ourselves wanting to help and give assistance to these poor folk.
So what we have here on our hands must surely be a masterstroke in business, an awesome way to earn money, a marketing marvel; to tap into the human mind's weakness. Or is it?

I've seen many advertisements or campaigns that use this "flaw" in the human mind as a catalyst to fuel and elaborate certain points. But let us take a small step back; are these "street sellers" really sinister business men that are out there just for your money?

No.

In the past, the people I see out there on the streets selling tissue packets have often reminded me of the beggars on the television and in a sense yes, they share a similarity as both parties are ultimately trying to meet end's meet.

In our society of controversy, we have been "brain-washed" to see these people in a different light. Nowadays, people see beggars and no, the first thing they do isn't to search for spare change but to doubt their authenticity. So what happens is that people dismiss the compassion and pity they have in their minds and dismiss the idea of helping a person in need.

Yes, there have been various scams from sly businessmen to use the weakness of humans to their advantage but let us not forget that there are still less fortunate people out there in our society.

So as I look at these people going from table to table selling tissue packets (largely to no avail), I begin to search and look for the compassion and pity that our society filtered away in me. No, though not all of them are like that, these people are in genuine need of help and assistance. They hobble round just to make end's meets, selling simple tissue packets.

To me, they're just doing an honest business to cope with the demands of life. I'm sure that they harbour no malicious intent. I'd like to think of it in such a way that they're trying their best to give back and not ask from society.

I feel that the higher authorities should do something and give these genuine cases their due amount of assistance. Its no doubt that we live in a demanding society, but what about people less fortunate? Life must be really hard for them.

Be it Sympathy or Tissue Packets, I'm sure by the end of the day it all depends mainly on the perspective of how you view the matter.

So let us open up these "filters" and see the world with an open mind. Only then, will we find the true meaning in our lives.