It's that most wonderful time of every student's life that we call "Syllabus Week", Having sat through six two-and-a-half hour sessions, I'm pleased to report I've decided on my four classes. My final choices are Brand Management, Customer Relationship Management, Global Marketing, and Marketing Strategy. I've decided to drop Business-To-Business Marketing and Consumer Behavior, the last one being a hard choice, made less hard by the fact that it was a three hour class on Friday mornings.
Brand Management
The teacher is actually from France, and seems really well-traveled. This class was the primary reason I decided to study abroad, as my home university doesn't have a class devoted to the topic.
Customer Relationship Management
Seems rather simple so far, but it's a field that's seeing a lot of growth in today's market. The principles of CRM are something we've always held true in marketing: a truly successful company doesn't sell a product, it sells a lifestyle. It's the difference between, say, the cold medicine I use (whatever's cheapest) and my laptop manufacturer (ASUS). Perhaps an even better example would be Apple, a business that truly knows its customers. I've never really saw the appeal; they make the only successful MP3 player on the market, but I still hate the interface, and that's the reason I have an Android phone. But they definitely build a relationship with their customers, and that kind of devotion merits investigation.
Global Marketing
This class is with the professor I had B2B with, before I dropped it. He's... a character. He asks that everyone call him "Uncle David" rather than address him by his doctorate title. He seems a very... let's say "earnest" fellow, very by the numbers. He's apparently quite the successful businessman, especially in the B2B market. Not so strong in B2C, however, as he admits.
He will be an interesting professor to work with.
Marketing Strategy
This was the first class I had this week.I earnestly don't remember discussing too much of import. It was a cut and dry syllabus class.
Oh! I'm very excited to share this bit of news! My university has a bridge club!
I'm sure that many of you are people I know personally, so it should come as no shock to you that I love contract bridge. I started playing last semester back in my home university, and I got hooked immediately. I'm apparently the first exchange student to ever join the club in HKBU, and I had to get used to slightly different bidding conventions (they open on 12 points, rather than 13, for example) but I picked it up pretty quickly. I even opened a grand slam tonight... but I digress, because this is not a bridge blog, and absolutely no one other than myself will gain anything out of a recap of tonight's hands.
Well, dearest readers, I hope to relay more of the lessons I learn here shortly. The real classes begin soon. As the sun sets on Hong Kong, many of you are just waking up back home, so enjoy your Fridays! Tomorrow: the weekend!
I want to come take those classes!
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