Innovative international cross cultural business strategy

Im currently living in Bangkok, studying business administration in Mahidol University, CMMU. Im here for one semester as a fulltime student. Im studying courses; International Business Management, Competitive Strategy, Cross Cultural Management and Mangement of Innovation.
Studying in another country is a learning experience of it's own. Today I had my first Competitive Strategy class. My professor is Thai, but have been studying in London. Theoretically, the course adds nothing new but they apply theory and work with cases is very different and hands on way, that I am not use to. That alone really teaches me a great deal. It forces me to think different from what I am use to at CBS. It also forces me to combine the theory I have learned in CBS new ways, ways I have not really thought of until this point.

I am looking very much forward to this semester and I hope that I can get the courses translated into the CBS system. From the paper it seems that these courses overlaps my courses at CBS but the reality is so different. The Asian way is really going to challenge me and push me to apply theory and think of the tactics.

to read or not to read

How important is an exam really?
It is just one out of many. No one will know if it was because I did not study, or if it was because I had a bad day/examinator/exsam question that I did not do well.
The grade will of course affect my grade point avarage which again will affect my ability to get a job. But again, how will a job depend on 0.somthing in my GPA?
This one exam on may 1th is worth nothing in that content.
But on the other hand, Im should not do this for a examinator, future boss, GPA and that stuff, I should be doing it for my own sake. For me. This is a learning process as well, and this course contains knowledge that will be useful after I have graduated. Exam as a learning process.

nah, your right I should go find the book and get to it. Instead of just postpone it..

Trying to get the great picture of the course 'Brand Governance'

The course has its point of departure in four basis "angles" of how to see a company's brand platform. It is customer and market orientation; Innovation and strategy; financial performance and measurement; and legal protection and leverage. All four areas can recommend how to strategically govern and develop the brand successfully.
The agenda is to make marketing a central strategic function in a company, and not just an isolated activity.

Customer and market orientation focus on creating customer value. The point being not to use a "good dominant logic" but instead a "service dominant logic". This means thinking of the brand and its products as a service to the customer, that is a part of the customers own value chain. The question being, how can I help the customer overcome his problem? By focusing on the customer, the company should create a holistic brand experience and aim to close gaps between the customer expectations and customer experience.
In order to make this successful and convince the top-management the eligibility, it is important to have a system that can measure the brand value.

Here most measurement systems fails as they either only focuses on either market performance or customer performance. A system for managing both is necessary. Moreover, it is important that brand managers speaks the language of top-management and the financial department and thus can explain in figures why the brand is that important. Saying that approx 80% of the company's revenue is due to the company's intangible assets (including the brand) is not a sufficient argument if it cannot be measured.

The measurement and valuation of brands is also a strategic way to look at brand in itself. It reflects a mindset of how to work with brands in the organization. Is the brand measured and valuated as an asset? or is it valuated as goodwill or not at all?

uh this is gonna be long...

In line with co-creation, customer value creation and service dominant logic we find innovation and strategy. The brand platform can be the guidance needed when managers need to make decisions of how to innovate. Is it the brand that drives the innovations or the innovations that drives the brand? Product innovations are costly, not just to develop but also to market. The brand is a valuable asset when it comes to creating attention and sales. The point of parity is already established and half of the work in creating the attention is done beforehand if the company understands how to use the existing brand as a jumping point. This of course depends on industries and the company's brand structure.

Lastly, the legal protection is important when we are talking about intangible assets. It is easy to copy a product tangible assets, but much harder to copy the brand feelings, performance and experience. However, if the company do not legally protect their brand and products with e.g. trademarks, it is thus easy for competitors to benefit from the established brand's reputation. This can be very damaging for the existing brand. Legal protection with Trademarks can in some countries be another way to think strategically of brands as trademarks in some countries can be registered before the product is in the market.

To sum up, companies need to align their brand in every touch point where they meet consumers externally but also internally to support the brand through management systems, organizational structure and culture. The brand does not exist in itself, it must constantly be governed and developed. A strong leadership and vision is crucial to this alignment and often the misalignment occurs when theory is formed into praxis and managers are affected by institutional norms and routines.

sound, noise and silence

after handing in the exampaper (and a great night with the girls at Jolene and Butique Lize in Vesterbro with lots of loud dance-music, cocktails and fun) I was off to my parents. Together we went south to our summer cottage at Møn, where we are staying a couple of days. My brother went back to Copenhagen, its too quiet at Møn he thinks.

It is spring allright, the sun is warm - but the wind is cold. I fell asleep outside in the sun after lunch today, and woke up to the sound of birdsong and wind in the trees. When I am here I am reminded how stressfull city noise actually is. Here, I can hear people talk hundres of miles away (depends on the wind of corse). I can hear a mouse rusle in the grass, a beetle crawl under the brown leaves and all the birds sing. I may hear a moped far away, but it is too far away for me to see it with my eyes. Here, the wind in the leaves is what dominates the scene. Not cars, not trains, not people shouting or music played on poor mobile-loudspeakers. Wind is the factor that determine how far I can reach with my ears.

It is natur's music and I instantly feel relaxed. After just a day I unknowingly turns down the radio because it seems loud. I dont need to turn up the volume, because there is no noise to drown. Slowly, I forget to check my phone, and my iPod lies untouched in my bag. My computer is my window, but the sound is turned off. Now, there is only peace - for the ears.

And when it is so silent- my mind begins to wander...

Lectures as podcast?

I want my lectures as podcast. Who says that powerpoint is the only tool in class-presentations? Sound is more important than a stupid slide! Its all the golden words the lecture says thats important, not the written bulletpoints.

Often, when you prepare for the exam, you remember the professor said something important in a particular lecture, but you have not written it down, and it was not on the ppt-slides. If one had the recording of the lecture, one would get more detailed knowledgde from the lecture. Further more, at master level lot of students have fulltime or partime jobs, maybe kids, husbands and wives which can make it harder to be there at all the lectures anyway. With recordings from the lecture the student will never miss a lecture. In sum maybe a podcast-service would actually increase the gradepoint average of the classes.

The first worry that I have is wether or not students would stay away from the lectures, when they can have the lecture as a podcast. I do not think they will, but that would definally be a concern to the professor. Second, is the technical aspect. I must assume that professors dont have technical skills, so it must be easy to handle. Third, it should be almost free of charge; I have no expectations of CBS actually want to pay for this service. Not yet anyway.

So first of all.. a quick survery among the students to uncover whether or not they will stay away from the lectures if they had a podcast-service.

........ why dont they have this kind of service already?! other universities must have this already?

Facebook and sonic branding

It could be fun is Sonic Branding had a Facebook quiz-application: Which song are you? Then people should answer like 10 questions of who they are as a person, and based on the answers they would be catagorized as the arch-types which we had labeled with a song. Then the user would see which song they were. THis might create more attention to our newly sound branding-group which honestly has a very bad member-rate at the moment.
The only problem is that we dont want to be a corporate group, but a interest group. Maybe you can be both, but I believe in the interest of sound branding and not particular in the marketing of sonic branding when it comes to Facebook. This is mainly because we are a b2b company, and even though a lot of companies are at Facebook, a personal "which song are you?" quiz would send wrong signals of who we are, and what we do. But maybe we could make other initiatives?

Corporate audio identity

Sound branding – or sonic branding, audio branding or acoustic branding – is not only about external marketing. Internal marketing has gained a lot of focus as well, and here sound is also a part of the corporate identity. Identity is as much about internal identification and dedication to the employer as it is externally identification to products or company.

In the western world individuals uses their job as a building stone in their own identity project. You are your job. It is therefore not unimportant how the company is perceived by the employee or potential employee. The atmosphere, the colleagues, and the leaders are important factors when employees evaluate their job. And atmosphere can be affected by taking sound into the internal branding. If the company can make employees (positively) identify themselves with a certain song or tune, it will strengthen the group affiliation.

Sound creates emotions and moods; it can appeal in a positive or negative way, and enhance memorability. It is a strong tool in affecting individuals and it is, thus, a good idea to broaden sound branding to an internal perspective.

Exam case, Red Bull

we have just gotten the exam case, that we are going to write the next 10 days.
Its in the course marketing communication planning. We have to make suggestions for research design and measurement design for a buzz marketing campaing, measure RedBulls consumption, social and political context, and have recommendation how research can help RedBull to increase their sales through our findings.

RedBull.. I dont know RedBull.. do you?

social media

I was at a UngKom event yesterday. UngKom (unge kommunikatører) is a student organization within Dansk Kommunikationsforening. They continiously arrange events for their members in Copenhagen, Odense and Århus. Yesterday it was about social media at a gallery called Gallery FEDT, which is placed in Nansensgade in Copenhagen. It was fun and I actually learned something about the media - in spite of the fact that I use them every day. It made me think of how to use social media and online network more actively in the marketing of Sonic Branding, where I work as marketing assistant.
It only cost the time and ressources used in creating and continiously update the blog/Twit/statusupdate etc. And it does cost a lot of time, but if you can create attention and excitement about sound branding and corporate sound identities in a small group, you got some important amassadors for your course.
Both me, my boss and my co-workers already use these media - Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogger - daily, so I guess its only a matter of thinking the company and our visions as a part of it.
It does not have to be commercial push effects. I love to tell about what I do at Sonic Branding, and what Sonic Branding does - so does my collegues. And if we can create attention e.g. in a facebook-group with just 200 fans/members, which also think sound branding and corporate sound identities are an interesting and relevant field, then we have a valuable small community reaching all over the world :)