NIKE Marketing Strategy

Daphne Wong

Marketing Strategy matters for the whole world in this media-leading world. How the marketer brands the products would affect the perception of a product tremendously, and for the products which was found to have defects (particularly those in worldwide product safety scandals), re-marketing is extremely important to re-build customter's confidence. In some cases, when the celebrities starring in the advertisements and commercials get involved in scandals and negative reports, the advertisers would simply change the celeb representative to one with "better image". In other words, the image of celeb is directly linked to the brand, and the marketers would do whatever they can to stay away from the alleged scandalous icon.

Liu Xiang has been the hero of China now, and before his injury in 2008. During his rehabilitation, although supports was there, many in the noisy China did condemn him for his absence in the glorious Beijing Olympic, the first Olympic ever held in China. Throughout his ups and downs, Nike, an American sportswear company, openly supported him and reminded the Chinese population of the importance of Sportsmanship. This marketing strategy indeed created a positive image for Nike and for Liu Xiang.

Let's review the marketing strategy before his injury, during rehabilitation and after he had recovered now.

BEFORE INJURY

AFTER INJURY

TODAY, CELEBRATING HIS RETURN

Rwanda Genocide in 1994 (Part 2) - The War

Daphne Wong

In the first article in the Rwanda Genocide series, the overwhelming power of the Tutsis in Burundi has swept the country for twenty years, leaving the already poor country almost paralysed. Rwanda, however, did not learn from the experience of its neighbour. Indeed, history was allowed to repeat in 1994.

IMMEDIATE CAUSE

The conflicts between Tutsis and Hutus were accumulated as the war between the two ethnic groups outside the border got worse. Also, the serious discrimination of Hutus by the Tutsi-dominated government under Juvénal Habyarimana's regime (since 1973) made reconciliation even harder. In April 1994, Habyarimana was assasinated. Then, the extremist Hutus started the three-month long massacre of Tutsis and pro-peace Hutus, also named as the "Rwanada Genocide".

THE WAR

What happened in the first stage of genocide movement had proved that the War was not just a provocated act out of cumulated rage. The War was planned, right from the beginning. First, the armed force who was responsible for the killing had been formulated in a systematic manner that every 10 families in Rwanda would be targeted by 1 militia member. The weapons had also been well-prepared that once filing a requisition form, the army could get an AK-47 assault rifle. These are manifestation of a premediated mass killing of peoples.

Until mid-July, a death toll of 800,000 people had been reported. The organizers, who were mostly top government officials and military leaders, manipulated the mass media and broadcasted anti-Tutsi speeches around the nation. The organizers even encouraged and openly recruited men to join their force, with attractive incentive of food and drugs. An organized capture, raping and killing of the Tutsis and moderate Hutus was carried out until July, when the heat of massacre was cooled down by the death toll and political powers gained by the Hutu.

INTERNATIONAL RESPONSES

(To be continued)

Enough with the fake "reality show"

Daphne Wong

There are countless reality shows in the world which are marketed as depicting the real emotions of you and me. For example, and that aims to capture the fear and bravery of normal citizens. Some even pushes the limit, such as , where couples are separated and set up to flirtings with other participants of opposite sex. The hottest genre of reality show in this decade must be competitions --- be it singing contest or modeling competition, the ultimate goal of producers are basically showing the participants' human side. They prefer cryings, arguings and confession. The more noises it can arouse among the audience, the more valuable the participant is to the TV Station, and hence, the bigger chance they can stay in the show.

THE UPRISE
The uprise of Reality Shows can be attributed to the audience's growing discontent with the "educational" TV shows that do nothing but create an unreal harmonious picture of the society. It was a brand new ideas for most people and the citizens starring at the show were able to demonstrate the normal lives of most people. It was the genuinity that draws many back to the TV again.

However, as the number of reality shows rocketed, the theme and contents of reality shows reach the bottleneck. Audience would be bored because afterall, the "citizen" participants are not professional in entertaining audience. The producers therefore have to create some entertaining elements into the show, including arguments and emotional scenes. Thus, the fake reality shows resulted.

FAKE REALITY SHOW
Sometimes, the entertaining elements become the "selling points" of the show and even dominated most of the time. In "America's Next Top Model", the 1st episode (screening) must be about how the girls talk about each other in a mean way or how the judges laugh at the ugliness or awkwardness of the girls. Provided that US is a multicultural and multiethnical country, the girls with different ethnic origins must discriminate against each other and have serious arguments. Those are the spicings to the "boring" (to some) first round interviews. Basically, the perfect formula of good audience rating would be: Bitching + Lesbian crush + Discrimination (against background or ethnicity or sex orientation or personal habits) + Quarrels + Crying + Illnesses (the model contracted skin diseases, or passed away during photo shootings.) + Mental Breakdown.

HOW DO THEY CONNECT TO OUR LIVES?
The fake reality shows provide the chance for a "nobody" to become a star, in one hour.

As YOUTUBE, FACEBOOK and many BLOG SERVICE PROVIDERS are crowned as the most influential inventions that change the lives of millions on earth, the trend of publicizing personal private lives has grown even higher. Youngsters open their own radio station -- podcast and be the DJs, talking about personal affairs which not many would be interested. They express their emotions through their blogs, sometimes over-exaggerating the seriousness of ups and downs. They build their own blogging network so that whenever they visit the blogmates' page, they have to leave a footprint, which is important for "rating" and personal satisfaction. All these portals did not, in most cases, improve teenagers' thinking on social affairs nor writing, but rather encourage them to be individualistic and self-absorbed.

The aforesaid can be the background of the following argument, and the reality shows can also be the background for the individualism stated above. Anyway, the fake reality shows have satisfied the needs of this i-AGE to voice their ideas and perform themselves on TV. Imitating their predecessors, they want to have a character that people would remember, even if that means they have to be dramatic, outspoken and get themselves enemies. The one-hour programme is everything for the i-AGE to impress strangers. They want to be famous, get their online creation published and be popular. That is why the producers can still get people to willingly be the "actors" in reality shows.


WHAT HAPPENED IN HK?
In Hong Kong, the long singing contests organized and broadcasted by the two free TV channels have been the subject of discussion for many. "The Voice" of TVB was criticized for its arbitrary rating by inexperienced, unprofessional judges. In the first 5 episodes, TVB simply wanted to boost the audience rating. So many famous singers were invited to be the MC or even guest judge. The participants become casual and focuses on showing their "humour" instead of singing techniques after a few weeks. Those who were eliminated must cry in front of the camera as if some members of their family have died. The extremely unprofessional yet entertaining reality show was contrasted with ATV's production, "Asian Million Star".

In "Asian Million Star", the focus on singing techniques and performance skills has made the show extremely enlightening and educational for many. The progress and great achievements made by participants are also successful elements of the show. When any of the participants was eliminated, the sincerity of other particpants, MCs and also judges touched the audience. This genuinity was already rare in today's "reality show business".

CONCLUSION
Finally, the author would like to conclude by showing the two dramatic scenes in Britain and US, both from the "XX's got talent" franchise. As the Chinese saying goes, Audience, your eyes must be clear.

Britain's Got Talent: Susan Boyle


America's Got Talent: Donald Braswell

Rwanda Genocide in 1994 (Part 1) – Background of Conflicts

Daphne Wong

THE Rwanda Genocide in 1994 was a history that has shocked the international community, and which posed a question on the safety of international humanitarian aids. 15 years from now, a review of the incident is presented.

BACKGROUND: THREE ETHNICITIES

In Rwanda, there are three main ethnicities: Twa (1% of Rwanda population), Tutsi (13%) and Hutu (84%). Twa is the indigenous inhabitants of the Central Africa and is now a poverty-driven minority in Central Africa. By 2007, begging was the main source of income for 40% of Twa population in Rwanda.

The Tutsis and Hutus have been the two ethnicities in conflict for decades. Although the three ethnicities in Rwanda have no significant differences in their languages, cultures and appearance, it has been social class that divides them. Most of the upper class rulers of Rwanda had been Tutsis until 1959.

COLONIAL TIMES: “RUANDA-URUNDI”

“Ruanda-Urundi” consists of Rwanda and Burundi, one of the ten poorest countries in the world. It was a colony of Germany before World War I, and that of Belgium after Germany’s defeat. When Germany was the sovereign, only Tutsis were allowed to receive education and the rights to participate in the government. A strict hierarchy of people based on their ethnicity was promoted. Provided that Hutus were the overwhelming majority of the population, the policy clearly had buried the seed of the preceding events and the ongoing ethnic tension.

In 1959, Belgium allowed universal suffrage and participation of the Hutus in the government. In Rwanda, Hutu leaders overthrew the Tutsi monarchy. In Burundi, the Tutsi leader pushed for independence. Hutus refugees fled to Rwanda to avoid persecution, where there were mass killings of Tutsis by Hutus. In Burundi, the Tutsi soldiers killed the Hutus civilians in return as a vengeance.

In 1962, Rwanda was separated from Burundi. Burundi was ruled by Tutsis and Rwanda was ruled by Hutus.

ESCALATION OF CONFLICTS

Since 1970s, after the massacre of Tutsi civilians initiated by Hutu radicals in Burundi, a campaign of "selective genocide" was started by the Tutsi ruling government in Burundi. The genocide was "selective" in the sense that the targets were mainly Hutus political aspirations and "seemingly" educated Hutus.

In 1990s three democratically elected Hutu Presidents were assassinated. Some of the assassination was even conducted by the Burundi military. It was estimated that about 250,000 Hutus were killed and about 150,000 became asylum-seekers from 1962 to 1993.

INTERNATIONAL RESPONSES

The international community was silent to the serious crime against humanity. In fact, no African leader gave public statements against the massacres nor sought to involve the UN or the Organization of African Unity (OAU). There was not a single intervention, international sanction or even reports by the UN until 1996, as evidenced in the UN Security Council.

AFTER THE GENOCIDE, WHAT WAS LEFT?

The genocide of 1972 did not receive the international concerns it deserve. Even worse, the two-decade genocide in Burundi was answered by Rwanda with the killings of Tutsis in 1994.

(To be continued)

Global Protectionism

Patrick Lui Sing Lui

On 24th June, the United States and European Union together lodged a case at the World Trade Organization over export quotas on raw materials by China. This move stems from China’s introduction of “Buy Chinese” policy which was aimed at retaliating against the “Buy American” legislation in her US counterpart.

The EU and America argued that China’s export duties have distorted the global market prices and harmed their domestic manufacturers. Yet, this action is often deemed unconvincing – in accusing China of adopting protectionist policy, they do not come with clean hands. The stimulus package of the US has included a requirement to Buy American in an attempt to revive its local market.

This kind of tug-of-war in which countries repeat retaliation often occurs in times of economic recession, climbing unemployment rate and widening international trade imbalance. While trade restrictions seem to have positive effects on local producers as it rules out foreign competitions, nearly all main stream economists believe that this benefit is short-term and that, in the long run, worse still, would hurt the local market. By the principle of comparative advantage, every country can gain by specializing on the production in which they have a comparative advantage. The Chicago school of economics, which is the biggest school of thought supporting free trade against protectionism, argues that protectionism wipes out this benefit and results in deadweight loss.

The current incident resembles the Tariff Act of 1930 after the stock-market crash of 1929 in the US. The Smoot-Hawley Tariff imposed a tax rate of 60% on imports of America. This gave rise to an immediate increase on its industrial production and factory payrolls. Nevertheless, this short term benefit was done at the cost of long term loss. As Canada, France, Germany and other main developed countries subsequently retaliated by means of increasing tariffs, developing new partners and developing an autarky, it was estimated that each country had suffered from declining GNP for about 14% as a result of declining international trade over the period.

The protectionist tug-of-war of 1930s ended as Bretton Woods took a series of actions to promote multilateralism and interdependence among countries. There are many resemblances between that and the current protectionism. Some might put their hopes on Obama’s reform on its porous diplomatic policy but it is still a long to go to end this de-globalization.

China’s great firewall restricts some websites and more

Neelam Hiranandani

The Communist Party of China (CPC) has always been very conservative in terms of the content that its people could access over the Internet. In the past, the government authorities have banned countless websites and blogs with anti-CPC contents. Access to local information for overseas press and media has been tightly controlled as well. Recently, the People's Government has introduced a tracking software known as the Green Dam Youth Escort. This software acts as a firewall which blocks out websites and disables functions. Activities performed on the computer can also be monitored. The Chinese government has mandated every PC sold in China from July 1 must have the Green Dam installed, ‘to protect youth from unhealthy information’[1], says the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

A technology breakthrough or an international joke?

The introduction of Green Dam has put most US Computer Companies in dilemma. Since the software is developed by mainland Chinese Programmers, the compatibility of it with computers is a mystery. There are possibilities that the software could lead to a crash in computer Operating System.

Along with the great functions the software has, there are a couple of major security flaws. Firstly, there is an error in the way the software processes web sites it monitors. Blocking of nudity picture is a function Green Dam takes pride of. However, it was discovered that the mechanism by which Green Dam tracks the picture is by the percentage of yellow colour. Therefore, a picture showing a yellowish duck would be blocked as unsuitable content for young minds, while another showing nude African women would pass the test.

Secondly, there is a technical bug in the software as it installs blacklist updates. This problem allows the user of the computer running the Green Dam installed to take control of the computer. Furthermore, a source reported that the filtered files could be replaced by the Programmers which would allow them to take control of any computer where the software is installed and automatically filter updates.

Moreover, updates can be delivered to a third party who can impersonate the update server and take control of the user’s computers. Considering these vulnerabilities, one might think the decision made by China isn’t after all a good one. It is because this will not only disable one’s privacy and confidentiality but also interrupt the computer systems in China.

Freedom of Expression Concerned
Professor Feng Chongyi remarked that ‘it’s the only country in the world where Internet use is growing but freedom on the Internet is being reduced’[2]. Websites are blocked simply due to the leaders' concerns over "explicit and political" content, definition not provided.

The global trade bodies has sent a letter to Wen Jiabao, the Chinese prime minister. [3]The main issue highlighted in the letter was that of suspending the plan of the Internet filtering software. The letter was signed by major international organizations including the US, EU and Japanese chambers of commerce, and the US Information Technology Industry Council. This gesture points out that the rest of the world does not support china on this issue as they believe in giving their citizens the basic rights and freedoms, be it freedom of speech, or right to access information, and educate oneself.

The Amnesty International Report 2009 had stated clearly that freedom of speech of journalists as well as internet users are major serious human rights violations ongoing in China. Yet on 9 February 2009, the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) by UN Human Rights Council, member states were silent to that and together presented a positive report for China. This is disappointing provided that China is becoming economically stronger and a good relationship with China means prosperity and opportunities to many member states.

Let's just hope as the economy grows, CPC would never forget the importance of social harmony, and follow the prescious western virtues of Liberty and Democracy.

Reference:
[1] Thomas, A. (2009). Tiny Firewall of China mandated for new PCs. In TG Daily. Retrieved July 10, 2009 from http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/42745/140/

[2] Wang, D. (2009). China raises ‘Great Fire Wall’ on internet. In ABC News Australia. Retrieved July 10, 2009 from http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/06/24/2607284.htm

[3] Shanti, C. (2009). Chinese prime minister gets PC letter - Green Damnit. In TG Daily. Retrieved July 10, 2009 from http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/43041/103/

Iran's Presidential Election 2009

Clare Tsang

An election the world keeps a close watch.

Iran’s tenth presidential election was held on 12 June 2009. It had been considered as a battle between the “ruling conservative” Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and the Reformist, Mir-Hossein Mousavi. After a month of sweeping convass and debate, the Islamic Republic News announced the astonishing victory of the incumbent Ahmadinejad. With 63% of the votes cast, Mr. President beated Mousavi, his closest opponent, who received 33% of the votes cast.
While the result was endorsed by the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Kharmenei, and countries such as Russia, China and India, its authenticity was challenged by western media as well as many voters. The European Union and the United Kingdom had expressed concerns over alleged irregularities during the vote.
Their concerns were not without reasons. Apparently Tehran had gotten tired of its conservative leaders. Mousavi had been seen as "the definite winner" by western media during the pre-election stage also because of his belief in liberty that many had dreamt of. "Moral police" and discriminative law against women are the first things to be kicked out of Iran if he won the seat. However, the political chief of the Revolutionary Guard threatened to crush any "green movement" against the Islamic regime by Mousavi.

The pressure was on, what next?

In response to the results, Mousavi sent an official appeal letter to the Guardian Council, Iran’s powerful clerical group in order to call for the election to be cancelled. He claimed that he was the real winner and that fraud was widespread and a review of the election must be put in place. Further, a series of cyber-strikes, blackouts of text messaging and blocks on pro-Mousavi Websites and widespread Internet disruptions had raised concern over the fact that authorities were prepared to impose pressures on the reformist movement. It was said that some polling stations were closed early when people were still waiting to vote and that Mousavi's observers were expelled from some counting sites.

One day after the announcement of the election results, supporters of Mousavir started to protest on streets. Protests soon began to grow and resulted in violence. Despite the political unrest, the vote was not annulled. Large protests continued until the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini’s speech of declaring the legitimacy of the election, urging the protests to stop, and calling for the execution of the demonstrators for they were “people who wage war against God.”
The Iranian government has confirmed that there were twenty people dead during the protests, while dissidents claimed that there were about 250 deaths in the ten days preceding June 25.

What are the issues?

The Iran Presidential Election has revealed a number of social and political issues.

1) Manipulation of Political Leaders and Press:
Before the election was carried out, most surveys in the media were seen as biased or manipulated to support campaign objectives. It seemed that there was a general pattern which put either Ahmadinejad or Mousavi in the first two places, while Karroubi and Rezai were the runner-ups.
It also appeared that the balance of political power had portrayed Ahmadinejad in a better position. Further, the fact that the Supreme Leader, who controlled all the main state institutions, had publicly supported Ahmadinejad suggested that Ahmadinejad had a strong backing.

2) International monitors:
International election monitors are not allowed in Iran. In 2005 election, when Ahmadinejad won the presidency, there were some allegations of vote rigging from losers, but such claims were never investigated.

3) Censorship:
There seemed to be a pattern of behavior of the Iranian government imposing limitations of the reporting of the aftermath of the election. Several journalists have been arrested for being reporters of the post-election protests. The Ministry of Culture has also issued a directive which banned all foreign reporters from leaving their offices. However, Ahmadinejad claimed that there was “ absolute freedom of speech” and that no one should worry about freedom in Iran. It has been alleged that many of the Internet sites, including Youtube and Facebook, were shut down by the Iranian government.

4) Economic Concerns
It was suggested that the campaign rhetoric and opinion polls before the election has reflected the fact that economy was a major concern in Iran. Serious worries included global recession, falling oil prices, government overspending, high inflation and high unemployment. As a result, issues such as civil liberties (particularly women’s rights and freedom of the media) were overshadowed.

Concerns of UN
On 7 July 2009, six UN human rights experts expressed grave concerns about the mass arrests and the ill-treatment of opposition supporters in the weeks following the Iranian presidential election. The experts issued a joint statement which called on the Iranian Government to ensure all citizens’ human rights and to allow independent scrutiny of the current situation.
However, freedom of expression and peaceful assembly were undermined and despite the warnings from senior UN rights officials about the possible use of excessive police force by some militia members, many continued to protest. It resulted that at least 20 people were killed and hundreds of others were seriously injured since 12 June.
It was publicly known that the Iranian government had previously made claims against the UN. They have made claims of the UN being racist. It is likely that the UN’s concern over the human rights issues in Iran would result in Iran’s claims that the UN were intervening their internal matters.
Some western analysts and reporters have expressed doubts about the result of the election. The Amnesty International has also called for an investigation into the “shocking scenes of violence meted out by the security forces”. As a result, the Iranian government has made protests to representatives from the UK, France and the Czech Republic for what it saw as their meddling in internal Iranian affairs.

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Iranian_Election_Protests
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/12/irans-presidential-electi_n_214657.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2009/jun/16/iran-uprising
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=31394&Cr=iran&Cr1=