Poor Planet Earth.

Yesterday, like any other working day, I read a Dutch daily tabloid called Metro on my way to the office. The headline successfully grabbed my attention “The Coldest Easter in 40 Years”. Indeed, it was snowing pretty hard that morning as well as the day before. End of March, and I am in my winter boots and wearing five layers of clothing. In contrast, in the same month last year, spring in Holland was reported the warmest in many many years. Today, whilst browsing on CNN online, I read an article reporting that some 220 square miles of ice has collapsed in Antarctica and an ice shelf about the size of Connecticut is “hanging by a thread”. Aggravating my frustration, I read another article on Kompas.com outlining that the number of cars in Jakarta is still increasing rapidly. I am not going to argue on these issues. I am pretty sure each and everyone of us is aware of the perils faced by this very planet we share and live on. Should we do something? or should we just stop listening to news and buy SUVs anyways?

Desire.

“Desire! That’s the one secret of every man’s career Not education. Not being born with hidden talents. Desire.”

-Bobby Unser

Cause-related Marketing (CRM)

“Social responsibility is emerging as a new theme in today’s marketplace. In the past few years, discussion of companies’ social responsibility practices have moved from reports and websites to supermarket shelves and retail stores” (GAP CSR report 2006)

Today, the choices consumers are faced with are enormous. There are a great number of products with many similarities in terms of price and quality. Moreover, consumers are demanding more value for their money. They are more aware of social issues and expect businesses to be more socially responsible. Ptacek and Salazar (1997) argues that the changing attitudes of customers have driven marketers to find new ways to make marketing relevant to society, dialogue-seeking, responsive and involving. In the ever-increasing need to differentiate themselves and their products, many companies are now pursuing the cause-related marketing (CRM) route as a valuable marketing strategy in order to obtain and maintain competitive advantage as well as to build a good reputation. In its simplest form, cause-related marketing is often referred as “the tactics of companies linking the purchases of their products with donations to charity” (Wymer and Samu, 2003). According to Joanne Fritz (2007) “…today, companies are fully embracing what is called doing well while doing good. Cause-related marketing may become the principal way that businesses express their social responsibility”. The (PRODUCT) RED scheme is an example of a successful high-profile CRM campaign. So if you buy, for instance, a Red iPod Nano or Red GAP t-shirt, you actually donate a certain percentage of its price to people with AIDS in Africa. The downside of CRM, however, company benefits first before any obligation to donate is accrued, and therefore the consumers may perceive this as self-interest rather than altruism. If so, this type of promotion could backfire and result in a loss of goodwill toward the company. In a nutshell, my thesis provides an overview of GAP’s approach to CRM , especially its communication strategy in promoting its participation in (PRODUCT) RED. Also, how it affects consumers’ purchase intention and perception towards GAP. Finally, some strategic recommendations will be provided for GAP to avoid or overcome consumers’ skepticism. Well my friends, pleaseee wish me luck!

B’day picts.

If you want to take a glimpse of my birthday party last Sunday, just check out the pictures here. It was such a lovely afternoon. I had a blast. Special thanks to my boyfriend for preparing it, and to Meity for uploading the pictures to Flickr.

A new addition to our family.

My birthday this year was really special. Chucky got ourselves a cat! yup, you read it correctly, a cat! He is only 5 months old but looks older than his age. He has long curly hair!! so adorable. His name was Bubbles but we found it too tacky so we changed it. After a long discussion and many silly name proposals such as Gombloh, Jablay, Marlboro, Kugar, Elmo, Jajang and Jansen, we agreed to name him Kelzo. Inspired by That 70’s Show‘s Michael Kelso, because both are active and stupid yet entertaining and cute! haha! So here it is, our Kelzo.

The New Look of Kafeinfo

We proudly present the new Kafeinfo.

Our deepest gratitude to our loyal contributors and to those who have been providing us with input and feedback. Thank you for you continued support. Your comments, questions, and correspondence are valuable to us!

Happy Birthday.

Happy Birthday to two of my favorite men, my dad and my boyfriend (same birthday, 26 years gap). Wish you both the very best in life. Amin.

My internship at BAT.

My current internship sure is different than the previous two in Vienna and Hiversum. In a good way, though. Firstly, there are numerous young management trainees and of course everyone speaks English. Fun! Secondly, I always have something to do since the very moment I sit behind my PC until (at least) 5pm when I shut it down, every single day. Absolutely no time for Friendster and Facebook, I might add. I have been given various big tasks that require me to communicate with people from different departments. I have been working there for a month and already I have learned a lot!! AC Nielsen, product launching, and the most exciting of all, field trip. Yes, I went to various outlets last Thursday to promote and sell two new variants of Pall Mall. In the end of the day, all employees were invited for a barbecue dinner in a restaurant called Gonzales. This company really strikes a perfect balance between business and pleasure, love it!

However, on the downside, this internship has got me completely tied down that I barely have the energy to write my thesis. Trying to work on it during weekends, but it gets less and less effective. Sigh!