International Marketing: Starbucks

For the International Marketing 250 unit this semester, me and my mates decided to work on Starbucks for the cultural & social environment topic. The group, consisting of Austin (Myanmar), Aaron (Sabah) and Me (obviously, Sarawak) decided to take a later topics but alas lucky draw destined us to do the very first topic and we presented on Week 3 straight ahead.

Me and my mates looking busy preparing for our Starbucks debut on the next day

Being optimistic, we just "owh what the hell lets get this over with" and surprisingly the topic was relatively easy. Everone was busy with their own assisngments and personal life, so meeting up was kinda hard, but I'm okay with that. With 4 days of individual research contribution and only one meeting (before presentation day on 12th) we came out with a pretty impressive presentation, "Very professional" as quoted from our lecturer, Ms. Fidella.

After the presentation, posing with Mel's merchandise

So anywho, for those who is going to do Starbucks now or in the future, I have to say they are one of the most successful international coffee chain who understands the cultural and social environment overseas, thus boosting its expansion worldwide. However since it's growing too fast, things may not look nice financially and a few outlets have to be closed. Yay by yay, you guys can learn a bit from this American company who introduced coffee culture to the tea-drinking culture in the east. And thanks to Melissa, our lovely President, for the Starbucks merchandise :3

Sutaa-bahkssu!

Swan Drinking Water

Ok so here's another new product coming out from Kampua Town, trying to penetrate Oil Town market with RM1 pricing and targeting key shops and outlets.

I was getting sien-ed by the price of drinking water (even the cheap brands are now at LEAST RM1.20). And then before I decided to buy RM1.20 Derek my roomie suggested I try another newcomer that was being sold at One Stop, so I did. And hey what do you know it's a drinking water from Sibu; Swan. Nothing special, just the same Process Reverse Osmosis (um yeah, got some sentence structure error there, it's direct BM translation), and the packaging is simple and blue. So what the hey, I began buying this brand since I can drink something from hometown and save RM0.20 on my drinking water expenditure.

Sarawak Statewide Blackout

Geez, I was going out shopping at DPS for supplies after dinner with buddies. Then at One Stop upon buying a new RM1 drinking water from Sibu called Swan, I noticed the lights were slightly fading in and out, and I thought it was because of One Stop's incessant power usage for its techno music 24/7. Then after 2-3 fades, lights out at approximitely 7.23pm.

After a political remark, we went back to h3666 thinking this could be another one of those silly blackout like the one that happened on the 3rd August, except this time the whole Senadin is affected. I had already set my mind to play games today after a rough week, but with no electricity, that means we have to LAN party like how our forefathers did 20 years ago without laptops and such. So we killed the time playing with poker cards in the dark, and it was bloody hard to see the faces while playing blackjack and bluff (of course no gambling).

Imagine this face bumps into you in the night...

A few rounds of blackjack and bluff in the dark...

And presto I got 21, so was the Fool. For this round, and the next round, and the next round... dammit

After a while I called my mom if everything is okay, and she said Kampua Town was in the dark as well. So was Kuching and the whole Sarawak basically. The first thing that came into mind was that Sarawak was attacked by some terrorists (not the bearded Al-Qaeda-ish ones, the average political fanatics-ish ones) or just a neighboring country trying to invade and take over Sarawak for the timber and natural gases. I won't be surprise if there's a news saying Sarawak do need the billion dollar dams to be built in Sarawak after this incident. But alas I just couldn't careless about these, since this is Sarawak, the richest state in Malaysia and I'm just a 2nd year student.

Some people manage to put on some smiles despite the disaster. Here is our table at the refugee camp near the Senadin food stalls, along with other dozens of refugess who decided to wait the blackout out

So what after a few rounds of laughing, accusing and sh*t we went to the Senadin food stall side (this side got powered back after hours of darkness, we're waiting for our turn). There at 9.50pm, we continued playing our games and talk sh*t till the power for Senadin Phase 2 area (where h3666 is) was back online at 10.24pm. Then life continued, and we carried on with our planned LAN party till 2.20am. Then lights out.

This was a student's survival story during the blackout. I wonder what others have to tell, such as hospital medical staffs, IT shop owners, the 737 pilots etc.

Here are some newspaper article links for your reading pleasure on the Sarawak Blackout, all with the same 'cause is still unconfirmed' gimmick:

Borneo Post
Sarawak powerless for about 3 hours last night
The Star Online
Two million Sarawakians affected by blackout

Alert Me Now: Academic Awareness Program

Helped out with Academic Awareness Program today, basically feels like O-Week, helping out the first year fresh bloods to get use to the life as first year SoBs. I was part of the team along with other Marketing Club and Accounting Club members, and of course Kak Sham and her other SoB brothers and sisters like Mr. Anba, Ms. Ng et. al. Lasted from 9-4pm, it was truly :3 to give some tips and tricks to SoBs to help them survive their time here. Anyways here are the pics. Kinda rushing in doing this post, because I got a LAN Party with the boys waiting in the next few minutes:

The Program was not the only event happening that day, there were Petronas A+ thingy, St. Co. school pupils visting et. al. Here is me looking ever forward with Kelvin at the St. Co. kids (with no bad intentions)

Some reps from Marekting club who helped out for the Awareness Program

Would like to personally thank Dennis in helping me out for our Peer-2-peer session. Couldn't make it an enjoyable experience for the newbies without your help.

08.08.08

The 8th day of the 8th month of 2008. Such an auspicious date, and I was busy with normal student life on and off campus. Had a Marketing Club welcoming party on campus, had some fun seeing new faces and of course the food... the sushi was simply irresistable (sorry, no pictures of it, before I realized I need to take a snapshot of it it's gone).

So once that's done, had another JCLA group meeting in h3666 with the Fortissimo. So after the meeting, gathered the usual CV! posse and turned the table upside down again at the local friendly food stalls while enjoying the Olympics opening ceremony. Sure it was spectacular, but after a while watching hundreds of countries' athletes parading for hours can be a bit meh. But it was okay, and the laughs we had about The Standard was enough to out-loud the other tables. And that's that for the 08.08.08.

Happy 5th :)

Senadin Blackout 2008

I was having a group meeting in h3666 when suddenly *ploop* blackout at around 9:27pm. The mood and passion for the JCLA group was there and the blackout kinda killed it. So thinking it's a trip we continued in the dark, only to find out moments later a few other lots in Phase 2 were affected. It was a pure blackout wheeee....

So what we did was hanging out at the burger stall between Villa - Village with other refugees who seeked lighted areas. Surprising a lot of peeps of all factions were there, so what originally was supposed to be a meeting (continued from h3666) ended up with chats with friends and dancing Solja Boy to avoid the mosquitoes who were having the time of their lives kissing our legs (it's a hot day, or night, so most people were wearing shorts).

The Queen of Samseng and my 'son' putting up their best faces despite the hot, mozzy infested night.

Yeah it's warm and hot outside in the open. And wish you guys were here joining the rest of us donating blood.

I was decided to sleep over at a colleague's house since I didn't have high hopes the power can be restored ASAP considering it's late night and it's weekend. So I asked him to drop me at h3666 so I can make sure all my valuables are locked safe. Fortunately I was greeted by electricity, and all's fine.

Be thankful the lights and electricity are back people, and don't disrespect them again. It's already a hot steamy season, we don't want anymore hot issues to come up from all the series of strange events. Right, better get some sleep, Week 2 starts tomorrow folks.

Jack 'n Jill Hot Duo

I know it's a hot week, so you guys can call me sot if I enjoyed trying Jack 'n Jill's two new Roller Coaster potato ring flavors; Ninja Hot Plate and Samurai Curry.

I spotted these two in DPS when I was scavenging for new snacks that entered the market this months. And I was delightfully surprised by these two newcomers. The price is ok la, RM1.80 each, must be a market penetration price and tactic since I can't even Google these two (that's how new they are I guess).

Anyways here's my review on the two new hot couple (or could be more out there but I could only find these two):

Ninja Hot Plate -
Strangely enough it taste like BBQ Roller Coaster rings, except with a slight hint of sourness. So it's BBQ-ish AND sour, ninja style.

Samurai Curry -
I don't recall curry being produced by samurais in Japan, but this flavor kicked ass. I personally favor this one since it has a strong spicy (but not bakso-spicy level) potato flavor, along with a tantalizing Nippon curry smell that greets you when you tear the packet open.

Ok, the packaging design intrigued me to buying them (good work Jack 'n Jill's marketing & packaging team). Now I wonder when will they come up with Emperor's Spicy Onion or Shogun Sweet & Sour potato rings. Would really wanna see those in the market soon.

That's Hot

These past few days have been mercilessly hot. It's so hot my metabolism was reduced to 30% full capability and I was not sweating anymore, I was leaking... And the worse part was having my feet BBQed, alive. I left my slippers for a wee 15 minutes outside the mosque for Friday prayer, and when I was done I slipped my feet into the melting leather slippers only to have them roasted at 45'C as I tip-toed yelping "Hot! Hot! Hot!" all the way to my friend's car 10 meters away.

I don't recall having this kind of heatwave in Oil Town for the past 2 years I'm studying here. Now I wish I can get into the student exchange program now and transfer to Perth to enjoy the cooler winter climate.

Anyways, drink a lot of water and if you're overheating you better go home, take a shower, turn on the air-conditioner and sleep under the blanket till the heatwave is over (I hope) . And keep on turning the air-con, because the gases emitted from the cooling device will help increase the global temperature so we won't feel cold anymore.

JCLA - Borneo Rainforest

The John Curtin Leadership Academy (JCLA) is a 1 year leadership academy that one has to pass and graduate in order to come out as a great leader for the future generation. 16 students were selected amongst 3,000 student on Sarawak Campus, and I was one of them. The 16 came from various schools; school of engineering, school of mass communications and school of business.

To kickstart the academy we had a 4 days 3 nights workshops (25th-28th July 2008), training and talks at the Borneo Tropical Rainforest Resort, roughly an hour drive by bus from Senadin, Miri.

And sadly since I've been through a lot of stuff for the duration K4L was not updated (10th July - 2nd August), I roughly can't recall all the activities in order, since I've already set my minds to look ever forward at future events in my academic and JCLA calender.

But what I can say is me ant my 15 other mates had great experience throughout the camp, with the help of facilitators from Oz and Boston; Ian, Jarrad, Nathan and Linda. And not to forget our own facilitators from Sarawak Campus; Mr. Terrence, Ms. Haslina and Ms. Serina.

The next few modules in JCLA will be held at various other places after the Borneo Rainforest camp. For one it is confirm my group (will be revealed later) is going to do some events in Miri, all while attending the JCLA workshops and attending our classes as usual. This is going to be one big semester ride... >:3

And no worries, I'm one of the pioneer generation Y who is able to multitask, and I will juggle the responsibilities as a student, JCLA participant and a human being accordingly. The Dean is now looking forward and have high expectations for my studies now that I'm in this big program so a couple of 8s and 7s for this semester onwards XD Again no worries, I'll find a time slot on several nights for Lan parties for us to unwind >:D

This is BUSYYYYYYYY!!!???@#$%^

Sorry for K4L's absence of updates for the past weeks. I've been busy with various events even before the semester started. But I managed to find a time slot on Sunday (yes I'm not spared of Sundays as well) to drop by and jot a few things :3

I kicked started the semester helping out my colleagues in SOARs for the O-Week semester 2 2008 15th July 2008 training the new SOAR advisors (brave men and women who will facilitate the new students coming into the University throughout orientation week or O-Week). After the training I volunteered myself as the head coordinator of Curtin Volunteers (CV!s,) managing the free men and women who volunteered themselves fearlessly to face the 300 new students coming in to Curtin to help SOARs and Management achieve victory in the campaign. Had a smooth command and control 89.11% of the times, and I was quite happy with the volunteers' dedication and work, with an exception of a few glitches here and there.

I coordinated the CV!s from Monday till Wednesday only, because after that I was needed elsewhere outside campus. So I officially passed my command to ABC and GT, the super seniors of CV!s left from their era who have seen more sh*t than I do. With such credibility I believed CV!s will be in good hands, so I stepped down at 1600 hours, 24th July 2008.

On the evening of 24th July I attended the launching of the John Curtin Leadership Academy (JCLA) at Mariott Hotel. A quick introduction, welcoming, certificate giving and formal dinner and then I was off for the day. Because on 25th July, me and 15 others who were selected for the JCLA will be heading off to Borneo Rainforest for a 4 days 3 nights training camp. I'll civer this in another post later.