Everything Is Going Mobile In China

Photo: Bloomberg News

Couple weeks ago I wrote about the Chinese red envelope tradition went digital on WeChat, the messaging app. Currently, WeChat is the most popular messaging app in China and it has over 600 million registered users over the world. Apparently, WeChat can do more than messaging your friends.

After the two years of growing in the messaging app market, WeChat created a public platform for companies and businesses to have their own official WeChat accounts in 2013. The public platform allows businesses to send group messages and post to their followers. The followers are able to share the post on their Moment (news feed) and to their friends. After the birth of public platform, WeChat saw the business potentials behind these businesses’ official account. Last year, WeChat launched a new e-commerce service called “WeChat Mall”. It combined online shopping and micromarketing into one service, which create a new sales pattern for different businesses.

First, we would think why people should shop in the WeChat Mall when we have all other online options? Is it either convenient or the price is cheaper than other, right? For now it may seems difficult for WeChat Mall to have lower price than other sellers, but convenience is its biggest stunt. Since this is a smart phone age, people save time by shopping through WeChat mall. They don’t have to wait till they get home or have a laptop, they can just make purchases through their WeChat app on smart phone. There is no need to download other mobile shopping apps, like Taobao from Alibaba.

WeChat Mall so far is successful by taking the advantage of the big amount of users it has. And people rely on their phones more nowadays, people spend more time on using their phones. It created the marketing opportunity for businesses, because people are more likely to read and find information through their WeChat. A regional expert of WeChat told an online publication that using WeChat for marketing and selling are efficient because of photos sharing on WeChat and the word of mouth between followers and their own network.

There sure are competitions with other existing e-commerce site, but WeChat Mall provided the new kind of shopping experience to freshen consumers’ impression of e-commerce. We shall see whether this kind of shopping experience will wins consumers over their old shopping habits.

Important Message to Future Fashion PR Pros

Photo Credit: Flickr User Michale Mandiberg

I read an article on PRNewser lately about 5 Tips for Upcoming Fashion PR Pros. It talked about what fashion PR professionals should prepare and know about while entering the fashion PR industry. First, Morgan, the writer explained press coverage is the most important part for fashion brands to gain awareness. There are few fundamental steps to follow in order to have your fashion companies covered by the media.

1. Simple and clear message

Make sure the message you are pitching and sending is simple and concise, so whoever read it will have a clue of what you are talking about.

2. Know your targeted publication

In order to be covered by publication, you have to research about whether the publication has the interest in your fashion brand, the message you are sending out and the products from your company.

3. Build relationships with the publications

It’s always easier to have your story covered if you know the editor or the person you are pitching to. Try to make a media list, it will come in handy next time when you think of who to pitch the story to.

4. Prepare a press kit

You should gather images and other related information in a media kit. When the publication is interested in covering the story, that’s when you send this kit to the publication. Sure the editor or report will appreciate you for saving them time to look up images and information about your company.

5. Keep your pitch professional

An effective pitch is the key of the email you send out. Show the reporter that you care about their work, make relation to their previous article that you read. Make sure the email pitch is not too long to make reporters fall asleep. Follow these rules to make sure your story is newsworthy; timeliness, impact, proximity, conflict, prominence, and human interest.

Some journalism students may think these tips above seem familiar. Yes, that what we learned in PR writing class. This is a big bonus for people who are interested in fashion PR like me and other PR fields too. You already have the fundamental skill to create pitches and your media kit, now go find an internship or job to practice your skill in the professional world.

Krispy Kreme’s Misstep On “KKK” Doughnut Club

(Photo: Krispy Kreme)

The past week, a doughnut chain store of Krispy Kreme was recovering from unintentional oversight. According to USA Today, a Krispy Kreme store in the United Kingdom posted a detailed pictured with promotion events on their Facebook, and one of the events is called KKK Wednesday. The KKK here is not short for Ku Klux Klan, the supremacist hate group. It stands for Krispy Kreme Klub, an event created by the Krispy Kreme store in Hull, England for customers to decorate doughnuts in store. After online readers pointed out the misuse of KKK on the event poster that posted company’s Facebook, the poster has been removed from Facebook. The company’s spokeperson made a statement to apologize for the oversight and assure that Krispy Kreme will be more careful with their publicity material in the future.

Even though the social media that exposed this situation to the public and gained attention. I would not say that social media hurt the case, because Krispy Kreme had gained attention from the public. Not just attention of why they would use the term KKK, but also the attention of how to handle this crisis. Krispy Kreme U.K. did the right move to remove the poster and apologize for the mistake. It is somehow understandable because it happened to be in a U.K. store. There are cultural and history differences, U.K. people may not be familiar with the U.S. history and what may sound offensive.

Not just in PR, meaning of words and culture background can get lost in translation in many businesses and industries. That is why learning a language is helpful, we will understand its culture and open up our eyes.

I think social media actually helped the store with promotion with their oversight. The incident didn’t affect my thought and view about Krispy Kreme, and I want some Krispy Kreme’s warm and soft doughnuts right now after reading the news about it.

Language Learning College Students, Fewest Since 1995

(Photo: Flickr User- Freekon)

First I want to share a little story. Last week, I found an American student helping a Chinese lady in the library of how to use the copy machine. In the quiet library, I sat right outside of the copy machine room, and their conversation in Chinese caught my attention while I was studying. You know when you are in a foreign country and heard people speak your language, you just can’t help not to listen what they talk about. When I listened closely, I realized it was an American student used his Chinese skill to explain how the machine works to the lady. I assumed the Chinese lady doesn’t speak English, and even the student’s Chinese was not fluent, I could tell he was using all the Chinese he knows to help the lady. I was impressed for more and more people learning and speaking Chinese.

During the recent research on my class’s final presentation about learning a second language, I found a surprising news article about the amount of students learning foreign language. Since the world is all about globalization, we think that learning a foreign language is more popular than ever. The Washington Post explained about The Modern Language Association’s report, it said that 100,000 less college students took language classes in 2013 compares to 2009. The rate of college students in United States choosing to learn foreign language in 2013 had the largest drop since 1995, dropped from 8.7 per 100 students to 8.1 per 100 students.

The Washington Post said the reason of causing language learning downfall is there are more and more class options college students have. Because currently business management is the most popular major in the nation, and there weren’t many class involved with technology like digital arts and computer sciences 50 years ago. Therefore students have more option to choose what they like to study beside language. And another reason is elementary and secondary schools are providing more language classes, so students don’t feel the needs to learning foreign language in college like before.

More and more companies started to land business and open branches in different countries. The need of employees with foreign language skill is definitely growing. Although the numbers of students learning foreign language in college is decreasing, we should know that speaking a second language is going to bring advantage in future career and social life. When you speak one more language, you have a bigger chance to success than others.

3 Interesting Facts of 2015 Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year follows the lunar calendar and each year is on a different date. This year’s Lunar/Chinese New Year fell on February 19. As you may know, Chinese New Year is the biggest holiday of the year among Chinese. Families and friends would gather on this day to eat, talk, and celebrate. This is the 6th year I spent my Chinese New Year in the U.S. without my family. However, I still enjoyed the New Year with friends, and by reading some interesting news and event online.

Is This Year’s Zodiac Symbol Sheep, Goat, Lamb, or Ram?                                                                   Chinese zodiac sign is a cycle of 12 symbolic animals. Each year will be represented by one of the 12 zodiac animal signs, these 12 animals signs rotate every year. Last year was the Year of Horse. This year is the Year of 羊(Yang), but the meaning of “Yang” includes sheep, goat, lamb, and ram in Chinese. Foreigners and media press were confused by what to call this year’s zodiac animal sign. NBC News suggests English Speakers should go with Year of Yang if debating what to call that ruminant horned animal.

(Photo: Darren Hayward/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL)

Know How to Say “Happy New Year” In Chinese Is a Trend                                                                        Not only in China, Chinese New Year celebration is getting big in the Western countries due to the big population of Chinese oversea. This Chinese New Year, Mark Zuckerberg and Prince Williams both sent their wishes to the Chinese by saying “Happy New Year” in Chinese. Maybe you should learn the “Happy New Year” phase and tell your Chinese friends next time.

Translation: Hi everyone. The Facebook offices is celebrating Chinese New Year with lion dance and traditional Chinese food. I wishes everyone a happy Chinese New Year, and a year full of happiness.

Translation of Chinese: I wish you a happy Chinese New Year and good luck in the Year of the Sheep.

A Chinese New Year Traditional Went Digital?                                                                                            Elders hand out red envelopes (hong bao) is the traditional of Chinese New Year. People would put money in the red envelopes on New Year’s Eve and hand them out to children and un-married friends on the New Year day. This year, an electronic version of the red envelope became popular among young Chinese. Two giant Chinese teach firms, Alibaba and Tencent create service to gift people with red envelopes on WeChat, the messaging app and Alipay, a payment affiliate. This service is functioned by linking your bank account to the red envelope feature on those two apps. Then you can gift your friends with “red envelope” on your smart phone by using WeChat and Alipay, money would be transferred from the bank account.

(Photo: Sofia Ordonez/CNN Money)

I received red envelopes from friends on WeChat and found it fun to use and play. Because I can use the money I received to gift other people. There is a feature with the WeChat digital hong bao that I can send red envelope in a group chat, my friends in the group chat can split the money in the red envelope, but only the luckiest get the biggest portion of the money. Also according to CNN Money, some people think this new hong bao feature is quite convenient.

There are many celebration and parades happening this weekend around the states. For instance, the Lan Su Chinese Garden in Portland is having a two weeks New Year celebration, including lion dance and lantern viewing from now to March 5. Don’t miss out if you are interested in Chinese culture and want to know how Chinese celebrate the New Year.

I wish you a happy Chinese New Year! 春节快乐(Chun Jie Kuai Le)!

PR Professionals Need To Do More Research

(Photo Credit: Flickr Elysia Communication)

We assume that PR people or publicists are good at building beneficial relationships with their clients and audiences. Apparently a twitter hashtag #PRFail showed that some PR people are not doing their job properly to build relationship. PR Daily published an article about the #PRFail hashtag and stating PR people should learn from it.

In the article, it clearly demonstrated that media professionals or clients were not happy when PR professional doesn’t do their job right. A female beauty editor received business email addressed her as “Dear Sir”. The event didn’t plan well so chaos over event invitation and caused cancellation for guest’s invite. Publicist sent inappropriate toy to journalist. And PR person tried to impress a news editor with a stunt by sending him pizza, but sent it to a wrong place. These are example include in the #PRFail.

The bad examples above explained some PR people lack in doing research about their clients and partners. As a PR professional, fully understand and know your client is a requirement. Addressing your client incorrectly, and small mistake that shows you have not done enough research about your client is going to damage a PR person’s reputation in professionalism.

I recently took a portfolio workshop at school with Dr. Pat Curtin, the Professor and Assessment Director at the SOJC. At the beginning of the workshop, she emphasized the importance of addressing people correctly in emails and letters. Many PR students will be sending resume and cover letters to our future employers for jobs or internships. Dr. Curtin said that it’s crucial for PR students to spell the person’s name and address the person correctly, because we all have the impressed feeling that when someone you never met call out your name correctly. You sure will pay more positive attention to that person just said your name right. If someone addressed a female employer with “Dear Mr.”, surely the chance of getting the job will be zero even before reading the resume.

Dr. Curtin said, sometimes people’s name might not be matching their genders as you think. Different from a phone call you would know the person is female or male by his/her voices. In email or letter, we need to be more careful about what to call the person you are contacting. So always research about the person you are contacting. Then you will have a better sense of what to call or address the person in email.

In PR, it is not true to say less is more. Don’t think it is a waste of time to do research. It helps people to have better conception about you. Last, good luck to those PR students with their job hunt and in the professional field.

New York Supreme Court: “Get Out, Fashion People!”

(Photo credit: Adrian Cabrero)

Each year, fashion blogger and enthusiasts flock to New York City twice for the Fashion Week and city is glittering with many designer’s newest fashion design. The 2015 Spring New York Fashion Week kicked off during the Valentine’s Day weekend at Lincoln Center. And this is the last time to held Fashion Week at the Lincoln Center.

New York Post reports that Fashion Week needs to be vacated from Lincoln Center after settling a lawsuit with New York parks advocates. Fashion week needs to leave because it encroaches Damrosch Park nearby. New York Supreme Court Justice Margaret Chan signed the settlement that all the tents and equipment for Fashion Week have to be removed from the park after the spring Fashion Week in this February.

According to New York Press, the Fashion Week moved to Lincoln Center from Bryant Park in 2010 because the neighborhood complained about the traffic, noise and crowd caused by all the fashion events. No announcement yet for where the fall Fashion will move to after the February Fashion Week, because of taking over public space and access.

The parks advocates and community activist of Upper West Side may be pleased when Fashion Week is finally leaving and giving them back the park. However, the twice a year Fashion Week is not as irritating to some other communities around Upper West Side. For example, restaurants and hotels near Lincoln Center are benefiting from Fashion Week. The New York Press said that Fashion Week generates about 887 million dollars for the city annually. As Fashion Week brings fashion people around to world to the city, restaurants and hotels benefit from all the visitors because half of the money is from visitor spending. Restaurants and hotels may miss the Fashion Week at the Lincoln Center while it is gone.

We shall see where will be the next home for New York Fashion Week.

Celebrities Are Role Models For Preventing Sexual Violence

(Photo credit: Alex Garland—Demotix/Corbis, Time Magazine)

In the PSA during the Grammys, President Obama pointed out that “nearly one in five women in America has been a victim of rape or tempted rape.” This number is fairly high when you imagine friends around you may have experienced sexual violence. This kind of violence and harassment need to stop happening in all the schools and campuses. Because of this alarming statistic, President Obama joined Vice President Biden to promote the “It’s On Us” sexual awareness and education campaign to prevent sexual violence and assault.

To prevent and stop sexual violence, President Obama hopes celebrities would endorse the campaign. Because celebrities have the power and ability to affect and alter people’s mind and attitude, aired the PSA about preventing sexual violence during the Grammys and the Super Bowl would reach more audiences and create better awareness.

Last year, President Obama teamed up with actor Jon Hamm, musician Randy Jackson, basketball-star Kevin Love and many other celebrities in a PSA video that aimed to prevent sexual assault. Taking advantage of the celebrities’ fame and their power of changing people’s attitude, many universities and organization responded and supported the campaign with their own version of the “It’s On US” video. University of Oregon supported the campaign to prevent not only sexual assault, also racism, alcohol abuse and suicide by creating the “Ducks Say Something/It’s On Us” video. The video featured student athletes Marcus Mariota, Devon Allen, Liz Brenner and a diverse group of University of Oregon students.

However celebrities and sports stars are often accused for sexual assault or sexual harassment. For example Heisman winner and Florida State University star football player, Jameis Winston had allegations claiming that he sexually assaulted a woman, but he was cleared of any charges. (Link to more information). In order for audience to accept the message that celebrities are participating in campaign to prevent sexual violence and providing good example to the public, the celebrities and public figures have to set boundaries for themselves.

114 Million Super Bowl Viewers Is A Lot. Actually Not Much Compares to China

To Americans and football fans, they have to wait a whole year for this exciting game to come -the Super Bowl. Super Bowl is always known as the most-watched television program in the United States. The 2015 Super Bowl just made the American television history by it viewing rate. According to USA Today, this year’s Super Bowl XLIX drew an average of 114.4 million viewers, and exceeded the 112.2 million viewership of last year.

As the most popular telecast in the United States, people in other countries were also crazy about the Super Bowl. An article in ABC News reported that, football fans in Brazil and Tokyo gathered to watch New England Patriots play Seattle Seahawks in the Super Bowl game. A fan in Brazil said that she likes football over the more popular soccer, because football is more intellectual and has different dynamic than soccer. About 54 movie theaters broadcasted the Super Bowl through out Brazil, which may helped to introduce football to Brazilian who have never seen a football game before. Also in Japan, the time difference didn’t stop Japanese viewers from watching the Super Bowl. Some of them were fascinated with football, and even took time off the job to watch the game.

Now that Super Bowl has received much attention oversea, has Super Bowl drawn any attention from viewers in the big populated country, China? An article published in Forbes two years ago reported that there were 22 million Chinese viewers for the 2013 Super Bowl. Compares to the most-watched telecast in China, 814 million people tuned in on TV and online to watch the 2014 CCTV Lunar New Year Gala, also known as Spring Festival Gala. That’s 7 times more than the viewers of this year’s Super Bowl. We can expect a huge increase in numbers of viewers from China if Super Bowl becomes popular in China?

(Photo: Calum MacLeod, USA TODAY)

Before football can become popularized in China, it has to clear up some obstacles. First, many Chinese are not familiar with this sport or have very little knowledge about it. Some may have been introduced to football during college in major cities, but that’s only a few. Second, Chinese may not have the physical qualification for football, so it is difficult for people to be interested in it if they don’t play football at all. Third, and also the most crucial one, it is not an Olympics sport. The Forbes article mentioned that politics have power over sports in China. Only sports that can help to earn medal amount in the Olympics and international competition will be supported. Therefore, sports that Chinese are good at would be aired in television more often, like diving and badminton.

Yet I hope that football will attract more attention in the near future in China. As a Chinese football fan, I definitely see the teamwork and emotion that I never found in other sports.

$1000 Louboutins Caused Pedopathy But Still Out of Stock

“Sorry, all sizes are out of stock in this style. And the one behind you too.” A salesperson at the Christian Louboutin boutique in Saks Fifth Avenue told a lady about the heels she wanted to get. I was visiting New York City during winter break, and when I walked into the shoes department of Saks, I saw a crowd of ladies hustled for the Christian Louboutin. My curiosity dragged me to the store, and I found out that many customers didn’t get what they wanted for Christmas because of the lack of inventory.

A pair of red soles would make thousands of girls’ dreams come true. Celebrities are crazy about them. You won’t see an award ceremony without actresses and singers wearing the red bottoms. So what makes Christian Louboutin one of the most popular shoes brands in the world? Maybe it is the costly price, maybe it is the iconic red soles, or maybe the pain of walking in their shoes.

An article from the Daily Mail published two years ago, said that Christian Louboutin, the shoes designer, had no sympathy for women who suffering from wearing his heels. The article also said the fashion icon Victoria Beckham had suffered from serious bunions and a slipped disc by wearing Christian Louboutin’s shoes. However, the pain never stopped Victoria from wearing her red bottoms to events. This may have demonstrated Christian Louboutin’s attitude, “High heels are pleasure with pain. If you can’t walk in them, don’t wear them.”

(Photo from www.upscalehype.com)

A normal pair of red bottom costs about 700 dollar, the high price doesn’t make Christian Louboutin stilettos less painful to walk in them than other heels. In fact, the pain is worse than other shoes while walking in them. Does the pain worth the money you paid for? Is the pain a true pleasure or true suffering? For girls that believe in the red bottoms, red sole heels are their confidence. It is difficult to choose between heels and comfort, but is it worth to give up health on a pair of shoes that hurts you by walking?

Now here are 5 tips that can save you from suffering and make your heels easier to wear. They are simple and easy, you don’t need to spend any money on them and you can find the materials just at home. Simply use sandwich bags and water, you will save yourself from the sorrow of walking in high heels.

Everyone has their own understanding on fashion, maybe you think Louboutins are the best shoes ever, or maybe you disagree. But next time, try some new tricks to twist your fashion, make it comfortable. So you are not trading your health with it.