The clock is ticking

An important year in my life. A number of major decisions to be made. An Easter break 2 weeks before Easter. A fabulous month with gorgeous weather that is quite unusual for this time of the year in this country.

Five months left before thesis is submitted and everything is packed back into my suitcases when I'm about to embark on a new journey, whatever that may be. Online tests, telephone interviews and waiting lists. Jobhunting has come to a bottleneck partially because of the post-study work visa requirement for all overseas students. Some companies have screening questions asking if one has the permanent right to work in this country. Nope. Sorry we cannot process your application any further. Of course one has to keep applying, keep getting rejected, keep practising tests and attending interviews and all that before receiving a YES. Some can multitask, some can't. I'm the latter. 

The reasoning is simple. Thesis, which is what I spend most of my time on, counts 60% of our final grade. Of course grades don't matter any more when you have a Masters. People don't even care what you did it in. Just another attempt to differentiate ourselves from the pool, isn't it. Having the opportunity to dig into the literature of sustainability marketing is great. Having the chance to work with Publicis over the course of my project is challenging. Do all the thinkings twice - academically and in practice. Deliverables apart from the perfectly written, carefully proofread and beautifully bound thesis, are formal presentations for the organisations involved. Lots of tasks coming up giving me the chance to practise, challenge myself and proving what I am capable of in the real world of work. Which is AMAZING. I'm really excited about this project!!

Deadlines. New deadlines. Timetable. Timetable changes. Timetable changes again.

On top of all the work I do, I did manage to get a life somehow. Coventry visit on a very sunny day. Met up with Siyuan, an artist who works at jobs.ac.uk and home-delivered a surprise for Peter Muckersie my British grandpa - I wish him well. Been to student concert night watching talented fellow students playing guitar, memories drifting back to the summer in Beijing Houhai when we sang our song in a pub. Indian night, the music was sooo danceable although food was a bit spicy for me (definitely not spicy at all for those from India). La Tasca, delicious Spanish tapas - can't wait till summer when I could visit Spain for the first time. Brunch and Easter egg hunt around campus, relaxing in the sunshine, being lazy, we were like kids fighting for the big prize when searching for chocolate eggs.

Cranfield Taxi Buddy has been, reasonably successful, thanks to technical solutions accompanied. Lots of members in the group now, posting taxi-sharing requests and sharing a lift with other Cranfield buddies. Good stuff. Should have done this since the beginning of the term though!! : ( Would have saved hundreds of $$.

 Make the most out of my stay here at Cranfield, really. Busy, stressful, working hard yet no regrets.

Recap: L'Oréal Brandstorm

Something extraordinary is happening.

L'Oréal Brandstorm it is.

In the case study, students are required to develop an experiment to attract men to go to hair salons where women also go to. In addition to the salon idea, a brand new product range is to be designed while the new range brand identity ought to be in line with L'Oréal Professionnel Homme.

On Feb 28th, except for getting the address hence directions wrong for the lovely breakfast briefing at Cafe Rouge, Team L'Aesthetic had an amazing day at L'Oréal Headquarter in Hammersmith, London - because we were fortunate enough to be in the UK National Final, baby! : )

L'Oréal is keen on raising the hair industry standard through educating hairdressers of the future as well as establishing business partnerships with excellent hair salons. There are hundreds of hairdressers attending various training courses and practical sessions across different levels at HQ.

End-to-end experience is important throughout all the different elements a consumer encounters during the consumption process: the packaging, smell, feel, texture, product performance etc. Every stage along the way influences the overall experience hence perception of the brand. In order to understand the male customers and how to sell products to them, we not only have to focus from a consumers' perspective, but also to convince the hairdresser or stylist to pass on this crucial knowledge persuasively.

Four male consumer segments were identified by L'Oréal.

1) Metro-sexual
Confident, enjoy attention, would like people to know that they're spending time and money on   their appearance, fashionable, designer styles, sexy.

2) New masculine
Effortless, groomed, stylish, like to smell and try new products, appreciate sharing knowledge, discussions, adopt new innovations.

3) Cautious
Reassurance on masculinity, classic with a twist, solution seeker, need simple advice, relationship is important to them, trust is crucial, one has to subtly tell them that a lot of men are using these new products in order to convince effectively.

4) Traditional
Unchangeable styles, conservative, have specific benefits, quick and simple styles, easy, no fuss, classic. Apologies Ross, I forgot who it was that L'Oréal put originally - you might or might not fall into this category? No offence.

According to Stacey Egan from Guy Kremer Salon, products that can be used at home to recreate the looks done in the salons are particularly attractive to men. Men are new to the idea of taking care of themselves, looking good, spending time on their appearance by using haircare or skincare products.

Beth Rowe, the Account Technical Manager suggests a potential challenge in the current L'Oréal Professionnel salons, which is the conflict between Toni&Guy own product range Label.m and L'Oréal products as participating salons have no contract obligation on the proportion of products by L'Oréal. Therefore there is an ongoing battle to keep the salons motivated and confident in passing on the benefits of L'Oréal products on to the customers.

 The company has also stepped into the green and sustainability regime, including launching Serie Nature, where science meets nature, promoting alternative ingredients. This range includes 7 products and acts as a platform to promote the ethics of the company.

On another note, male consumers are said to use 6 products on average whereas there is a potential of 3 more products that can be adopted in both the existing and new skincare/haircare categories. Which product categories do we want to develop further? Colour, haircare or styling? Or is it skincare which we want to extend to by leveraging the power of L'Oréal Professionnel brand. We want to invite them to come to hair salons, spend more for bums on seats. What models wear can also influence customers' choice significantly, depending on whether or not they reflect the male customers' style to make them feel comfortable.

These are not all the challenges that we need to tackle.

On Wednesday April 6th, we will be meeting an ad agency who is allocated to work with us, helping us to develop illustrations of our salon experiment, product range and ad campaign.

Watch this space! : )

*Picture credit: Katherine Tian Meng
*From left: Julia Vladu, Katherine Tian Meng, UK Marketing Director, Marketing Department cool guy, Michelle Ou
(picture can be removed upon request as permission was not obtained prior to publishing)

How time flies

Its been a while since my last post.

During this fortnight, we had an exam in Demand Driven Supply Chain which was a nightmare for me, our poor Japanese friends suffered from the disastrous earthquake - God bless them, I made some progress on jobhunting, passing interviews or at least receiving feedbacks on applications made, which often began with 'dear candidate, we appreciate your effort and interest in the programme however we're regret to tell you...'

How strangely appealing ad festivals can be!

It was St Valentine's Day when I volunteered to get involved with PIAF as I saw the potential in this new ad festival that is particularly revolutionary and innovative. In its second year, the festival has taken brave initiatives to make its mark in the advertising industry by creating direct marketing campaigns specifically targeting at the best ad agencies around the world, some of which can be viewed here. Its 'where bad ideas go to die' campaign through which people kill their bad ideas creatively is seen as controversial and somewhat violent. Could be viewed as an alternative way of celebrating the nature of the creativity industry, which can be extremely challenging and brain straining.