Embrace the Changes, Our Nation of Nations - 2016 Australian Census

In case you missed it while you were buried under your uni assessments, data from the 2016 Australian Census has officially come out and the results are quite surprising. One thing is clear, however - Australia is changing.

To start with (and there’s no surprise here), we are getting older, less religious and there are far more same-sex couples. Our nation has never been so multicultural, and all the latest facts leave hints about how Australia’s population has developed over recent years. Not only in terms of origin, age and gender, but also how where we are headed in the future. This demographic shift leads us to embrace the business opportunities with these evolving market trends.

Let’s take a look how gender is shaping up.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics discovered that the population now consists of 50.7% women and 49.3% men. Women are continuing to surmount men.

Coupled with the women’s empowerment trend and marketing becoming more inclusive and also more politicised, this implies that the “she-economy” is still in play - something that presents a huge opportunity for brands.

This semester, in Contemporary Consumer Behaviour, you might recall Linda McGregor, the founder of All About Eve, who explained how women have strong buyers’ power due to the fact that they are typically the family’s “director”. Women have both the power of deciding on or strongly influencing more than 80% of purchases. What’s more, they are expected to make up 50% of main income earners by 2019.

Households are changing.

The number of families have risen by roughly one million to just over six million. The typical family is still a standard couple with children, but this number decreased to 45% in 2016 from 54% in 1991. It probably doesn’t shock you that nowadays people are less willing to have kids, with numbers slightly increasing from about a third to 38%.

According to the Daily Telegraph, there are more same-sex couples, with a jump of 39% or 47,000 in the past five years. This change in the structure of the household unit will influence household purchases and consumer behaviour. For marketers, this is an important trend for businesses in the children’s category to look into. This, along with developing a better understanding of the sub-culture in Australia’s LGBT market, will enable us to provide more value and better products and services.

Age is just a number.

People are getting older. It’s a fact we can’t ignore. In Australia, the median age grew to 38 years in 2016; rising from the median of 37 years that’s been recorded since the 2006 Census. Although some might argue that this is correlated with the healthcare industry boom; others would say that more and more baby boomers are just getting older.

While our mum and dad’s grey hairs don’t qualify them for their pensions just yet, the grandparents will be relieved to have some more bingo buddies. The proportion of the population aged 65 years and over rose to 16% in 2016 from 14% in 2011.

I said ‘Do you speak my language?’, but he just smiled and gave me a Vegemite sandwich.

It is revealed in the 2016 Australian Census that over 300 languages are spoken across the country! Here are the top five languages below.

Australia is more and more multicultural, with 26% of the population born overseas. These are the top five countries of birth as seen on Business Insider.

The numbers don’t lie. Australia’s rich, multicultural population makes it an international country with countless different sub-cultures. Companies should remember these essential facts when conducting consumer research to aid with deciding language choice in ads. The message must be clear if you want to target customers who speak languages other than English.

We’re bringing home the bacon.

Good news! People are more wealthier than ever before! The median personal income grew from $577 per week in 2011 to $662 in 2016 with the household income rising to $1,438 as well.

When considering Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, such income growth might benefit industries which provide products and services that suit consumers’ higher level of needs such as entertainment, dining out and retail therapy.

Large Cities’ Population Growth 

Sydney, the largest city in Australia, is fast approaching five million residents. The population has been rising rapidly - increasing by 1,656 people every week since the previous Census. Melbourne is catching up - growing by an average of 1,859 a week according to the Business Insider.

With so many new residents all clamouring to live close to the city centre, people are living in apartments instead of houses. 7 News Sydney reported that urbanisation trends have been key drivers for infrastructure growth in the city. 

With change, follows opportunity.

Census Australia has shone a light on Australia’s changing consumer landscape. The evolving demographic is a key driver for growth across all industries, presenting numerous business opportunities for those who can reach their audiences.

But with so much noise and confusion, how you use this information will determine whether or not your brand will stand out from the crowd.

Watch the Official Australia Census 2016 video to find out more!


Join our Master of Marketing and study on a beautiful campus in one of the world's best cities!
Sydney ranks second on a list of the 50 best cities in the world. It’s one of the best places to live, work and study, scoring above even New York and Paris! The University of Sydney has also been named among the world’s top 10 most beautiful campuses.

The University of Sydney’s Master of Marketing program was developed by the Business School, with extensive advice from reputable business leaders to ensure that the course meets the real needs of contemporary business, making it one of the most cutting-edge, industry-relevant marketing degrees in Australia.

Bowie Chen
Current student from the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School.
Bowie has several years' experience working in FMCG marketing, media and consulting.

How to Fight In the Complex Social Media Environment

According to the BBC, due to pressure from many countries Facebook has revealed measures to remove terrorist content. How are they going to do this? Well besides being akin to The Eye Of Voltron (pardon the Lord of the Rings reference), Facebook has mastered the use of artificial intelligence to spot clusters of fake accounts, pictures, videos and other content that’s related to terrorism.

The Social Media Environment Is Becoming More And More Sophisticated.

After the fake news issue from the US presidential election, criticism can be heard in many places challenging the information authenticity of social media. So it makes sense that Facebook are now fighting to find a balance between encouraging users to share ideas freely and suppressing fake news.

With this cutting edge technology in place, Facebook claims that they can use image-matching algorithms to block photos or videos that the system has matched previously with extremist content. This is a wise approach to stopping terrorism going viral, but the fact still remains that it is still controversial as some people regard this as another form of censorship. Using special controls to influence the media environment in the long term will gradually limit the users’ original freedom of speech in social media.

Do sponsored posts make you mad?

Apart from this, another rising concern in the social media environment is the increasing frequency of commercial advertisements’ popping up in our newsfeed and side bar. Contrary to the pure conversational platforms that they used to be, social media (i.e. Facebook) is now flooded with ads, the majority of which are even tailor-made, based on users’ personal information.

From the business perspective, it is a valuable channel for companies to build their brand exposure, while providing a platform to talk to the consumer directly. However, performance of advertisements is in decline due to too much noise online. According to Hubspot, 40% of users now click dislike on Facebook ads- and that’s not good news.

Statistics from VIEO design shows that people have a negative attitude toward online ads:

- 91% of people say ads are more intrusive today than 2-3 years ago
- 87% say there are more ads in general than 2-3 years ago
- 79% feel like they're being tracked by retargeted ads

As the development of social media environment is impacting the users’ attitude and behaviour towards it, marketers should be wiser while using the social media, and make sure their strategy is fitting with consumer’s preference.

Here are some tips for online ads from VIEO design:

1. Don't set up videos to autoplay.

It's interruptive, annoying, and downright rude.

2. Don't mislead people.

Luring consumers in with something that sounds hyper-relevant to what they're reading or watching, but ultimately isn't. Baiting will not convert visitors into leads... but it will turn them off.

3. Dumb is just as bad as misleading.

Fifty-six percent of consumers say, "most online ads these days are insulting to my intelligence," which contradicts the idea that you need to write for the lowest common denominator.

4. Ads need to—and this is very important—not look tacky or amateurish.

That may seem obvious, but when 63% of people say "Most ads I see online don't look polished or professional". Consumer's standards are likely higher than you think.

5. If you do use pop-ups, be judicious.

The ads most resented by consumers are, surprise-surprise, pop-up ads, with a 73% disapproval rating. But if you do use them, before you interrupt their browsing, give people time to find value in what you're providing.

6. Retargeting requires some finesse.

About 79% of people say, "I feel like I'm being tracked because I've seen ads for items I've bought in the past. Making your potential customers feel like they're being stalked is definitely something that you try to avoid.

With built-in advanced technology, social media possesses a super power which enables it to differentiate itself from traditional media. Social media is global, ubiquitous and cheap. It provides an opportunity for individuals and groups to start up conversations and share ideas. Furthermore, consumers can also be producers in the social media context, an evolution that has lead to content spreading world-wide in record time (The power of social media).

In the age of social media, the increasing concern about the social media environment is something that marketers should be paying attention to. So while we continue to try to reach and target consumers through this widely used tool, it is essential to maintain a healthy social media landscape for a long term business perspective.

So that leads us to the question, how can we get the best from social media and at the same time operate and manage it in a more ethical way?

Bowie Chen
Current student from the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School.
Bowie has several years’ experience working in FMCG marketing, media, and consulting field.

Brace Yourself

“Winter is coming” is probably the best reason to brace yourself, which is also the first episode of the HBO medieval fantasy television series, Game of Thrones. But we are not here to talk about the Stark family or who will sit on the Iron Throne next season.

The chill might be from the pressure after this graduation season - the empty room left for students to pursue their career path.

According to the report Job Seeker Trends 2016: Increasing Global Mobility, which was released by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), out of all the job seekers around the world who found new work in 2015, 64% were interested in working abroad, while 7% had already moved to a different country to work. Some 76% expressed an interest in working on a freelance basis, including 23% who were already doing so.

Apparently there’s never been a better time to jump on the bandwagon and explore a new frontier. These findings highlight the growing flexibility of the labour force around the world and how willing than ever job hunters are to move abroad or to juggle multiple jobs. It has been emphasised how critical it is for companies to enhance their competitiveness to be able to attract talent effectively, not only from their own country, but from other countries.

Interestingly, the report also finds that the internet is taking a great approach to job searching. 44% of job seekers now believe that the internet, including both internet job sites and social networking sites (such as LinkedIn), are the most effective and important means of finding new employment.

The global workforce is increasingly mobile

In comparison to the respondents from non-English speaking countries, there was a higher percentage of respondents from English-speaking countries: US, UK, Canada, India and Australia who showed a greater interest in working abroad or have already moved to another country for work. Japan, in contrast, has the lowest level of interest in working overseas.

The interesting thing is that respondents are more focused on the benefits for themselves when considering the opportunity, such as living in a different cultural environment (25%), but when it comes down to actually deciding to leave, they think more about their family situation and those who will be left behind. 

The growing flexibility of the labour force

The average number of respondents for the 13 countries who have some interest in working as a freelancer was 76%, with 23% having actually started working as a freelancer. Different countries have different results, while Japan still holds the lowest acceptance level on freelance work.

However, the number of freelance workers will begin to rise sharply in near future, which increases the uncertainties of global mobility.

Challenge but opportunity

Online job sites and applications are widely used and serve as an important channel regardless of age. Such platforms offer thousands of options for us to judge and make decisions before and after graduation.

You may feel the competition from international students surrounding you, the pressure of different cultures like Japan and the challenges of leaving your friends and family behind. No matter the case, please never underestimate your ability. Winter is coming, but brace yourself to keep warm. Finally, you will find your own journey under the enormous storm.

Brace yourself because you are strong and brave!

Hazel Chen

Current student from the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School.

Insider tips: Marketing Consultant

It’s getting close to the end of first semester. Are you busy with assignments or studying for final exams at the moment? Good luck guys! Also, don’t forget we have our consulting project first draft due in a week. Keep reading to find out some insider tips for working as a marketing consultant

Fast learning, strategy setting, seeing the big picture... Marketing consulting is definitely an interesting field to work in.

As students pursuing a Master of Marketing degree, we have sufficient academic background to share knowledge about product marketing, industry context etc. But when helping a company to expand their business in a real case, there’re more complicated situations we would need to tackle. For example, how can we manage to work well with the client, and how can we help the company as a marketing consultant?

So to get some answers, we interviewed Maysoon El-Ahmad, a senior marketing consultant, to give us a some insight into this topic.

The key role of a marketing consultant is to come up with solutions, which could tackle complex problems and help organisations move forward with innovative capabilities.

Clients would come to you because either they don’t have time to figure out the solution or they expect you to use your expertise to find out the real problem behind of the story.

However, as a professional marketer in the consulting sector, various difficulties and challenges must be conquered.

Difficulties and challenges

1. Be a specialist in the organisation
2. Stakeholder management 
3. Creating value

You need to have the full picture about what the problem is in limited time. In the meantime, you have to be capable of working alongside people who have different needs and roles in the organisation, and you need to connect with your clients and other types of stakeholders.

In the second stage, you have to come up with the right questions to understand the key problems and approach your solution strategically. Then, you need to manage the expectations of your clients by creating real value, instead of delivering what they already know.

Even though this role can be very challenging at times, there is always something interesting to keep us motivated. Besides, during this stage you will be able to transfer what you learnt from one client to another, even if it is across different industries. 

The fun part of being a Marketing Consultant

1. Always tackling challenging problems and coming up with creative solutions
2. Meeting different types people
3. Working across different industries
4. Cracking challenging problems for clients

Maysoon’s Tips for students

 

• When approaching your clients’ projects, you need to ask the right questions and let your clients explain the difficulties and challenges they are facing. By understanding the key problems, you can come up with solutions that strategically benefit all the different stakeholders.

• Try implementing psychological management techniques to manage the expectations of your clients properly. 

• Be clear on what you are trying to deliver to clients in a transparent and comfortable manner.

Maysoon El-Ahmad holds a Bachelor of Economics and a Master’s degree in Commerce (Marketing, Strategy and Innovation) from the University of Sydney. She is currently a marketing consultant working with a boutique management consultancy in Sydney called Growth Mantra. She specialises in finding strategic solutions grounded with a deep understanding in consumer behavior and motivations. 

Bowie Chen and Hazel Chen

Current students from the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School.

How to Give a Killer Presentation

As a marketer, have you thought about the importance of public speaking in your daily life?

Whenever you are doing group work, in an interview, working on your consulting project, or pitching your ideas to your boss, it is so important to communicate your ideas persuasively and with clarity. The art of public speaking is not only about standing in front of a crowd confidently, it’s also about engaging your audience by keeping them hanging on to your every word.

As a student pursuing a Master degree, learning how to present is a crucial skill necessary for communicating the value of your product, brand, service or a message that you want to deliver. More than that, you want your message to resonate, inspire and compel your audience to action. But besides the obvious, communicating effectively and confidently presents you with an opportunity to shine and could even help you stand out enough to finally get that promotion.

With all that in mind, we have invited a pro in the realm of public speaking, Maysoon El-Ahmad, whom you may remember as a guest lecturer from the Internal Marketing course. Maysoon, currently a marketing consultant at Growth Mantra, has agreed to share with Marketing Matters some important tips for giving a killer presentation. Watch the video below to learn how to give a killer presentation.

Maysoon is a Masters of Marketing graduate from the University of Sydney with years of experience across different industries.

Maysoon’s Top Tips

1. Know your topic well

2. Be passionate about your delivery.

3. Make eye contact with your audience.

4. Use visuals to engage your audience (not too much texts or files).

5. Give examples that audience can relate to.

The best way to engage your audience is to create connection with your audience by being passionate about what you are talking about, engaging how your presenting leading your presentation, and behaving as nature as possible.

Normally, we pay attention to when people tell a story with vivid description and specific presentation layout. As study, published in the journal Psychological Science, recommends an approach called “reminders by association”, which means that if you pair your tasks with a visual cue, you’ll be more likely to remember it. Our brain is mainly an image processor, so the most powerful way to give a killer presentation is to understand your topics and then deliver them to your audience with attractive contents and fascinating motivated attitude.

We are here to wish everyone good luck on your coming presentation!

Maysoon El-Ahmad holds a Bachelor of Economics and a Master’s degree in Commerce (Marketing, Strategy and Innovation) from the University of Sydney.

She is currently a marketing consultant working with a boutique management consultancy in Sydney called Growth Mantra where she specialises in finding strategic solutions grounded with a deep understanding in consumer behaviour and motivations.

Bowie Chen and Hazel Chen

Current student from Master of Marketing program in the University of Sydney Business School

Pedal Power

Getting caught in a traffic jam and being stuck on the road for hours is always a nightmare. Not to mention, a waste of our precious time. With the growing population, combined with the increasing number of cars on the road, many countries are encountering public transport issues, as well as heavy fuel consumption and air pollution.

Under the umbrella of “the sharing economy”, ride sharing and bus sharing have already taken off thanks to the flexibility, low cost and convenience on offer. Now, the bike sharing system has followed suite. Let’s take a look at how this thriving trend came to play a part in the game.

Low cost, convenient and environmentally friendly
A bicycle sharing system is a service which offers bicycles for shared use to individuals. Many bike sharing systems offer subscriptions that are either free for the first 30-45 minutes or at a very inexpensive deal (for example, 99c per 0.5 hour). This set-up encourages people to take advantage of a low cost flexible transport system with the added bonus of reducing vehicle emissions, congestion and fuel consumption.

Lots of people find it very convenient and easy to use, especially when they are routinely stuck in traffic jams or going home late with no public transport available. Bike sharing is a very low cost alternative that is the convenient choice for solving the consumer’s “last mile” problem.

Bike sharing company Ofo

Bike sharing goes worldwide
With all the benefits mentioned above, the bike sharing trend has exploded worldwide.

According to Bike-Sharing Blog, there were 2.3 million public-use bicycles globally in 2016, which is more than double compared to 2015.

China, Italy, USA, Germany, Spain, France, Switzerland, Greece, Austria and Japan are the top ten countries with the most bike sharing programs.

With the rapid growth of technologies, many bike sharing programs have introduced new systems, such as electric and dockless bikes to enhance the customer experience. In China, more and more user-friendly approaches can be seen spreading throughout multiple cities. Bikes can be paid using a smartphone and left anywhere, with GPS tracking enabling them to be located via a mobile app.

The world’s first bike sharing service was launched in June 2015 by a Beijing-based start-up called Ofo. The company now has around 2.5 million yellow-framed bikes in more than 50 cities throughout China. Its main rival, Mobike, which only started up a year ago, says it has “several million” of their orange-wheeled bikes spread across a similar area. Another competitor, Bluegogo, has half a million bikes in six Chinese cities, with plans to grow by a new city every two weeks, according to the Economist.

Vélib' is a large scale bicycle sharing company in Paris, France. Fun fact: the French words vélo (English: "bicycle") and liberté ("freedom") were combined to form the name Vélib'. Compared to the metro, it is time efficient, and has gained popularity among Parisians thanks to an easy subscription system, vast number of docking stations, and built-in LED lights for night-use.

Vélib’ automated pay station

In Melbourne, Australia, Blue Share bikes are becoming popular, with unlimited 30 minute rides between stations, and subscriptions starting from just $3 per day. Australia was actually the first country to make wearing bicycle helmets mandatory, so free helmets are provided as a courtesy with Blue Share bikes.

Marketing campaigns
There have been a number of intriguing and fun campaigns launched to attract more users by a number of bike sharing companies.

Bluegogo sent out Santa Claus on Christmas to give gifts to citizens and encouraged people to find the blue sharing bike on that day.

Mobike has found a way to collaborate with external companies by offering up advertising space on the front of their bikes.  You can see an ad for sunsreen products below, encouraging more people be sunsafe while using the bike service.

Although there are still some issues in the bicycle sharing industry, such as theft, vandalism and maintenance, the future looks optimistic. Co-founder of Baas Bikes, Robert McPherson said, “Bikes can be the best partner of the city. If you conduct it well, it will be a big revolution in public transport.”

However, the real question is, how will bike sharing services fare down under? Where, for many Australians, owning a car isn’t a luxury but a necessity. Could this be the answer to all our gridlock problems?

Bowie Chen
Current student from the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School.

18 Days and 18 Nights

Have you imagined living at home for 18 days without setting a foot out your door or dying of starvation?

Well, I have good news for you! Now staying at home is easier than ever. With the growing abundance of online home services, you can live happily in your own little cocoon without the stress of going outside, while at the same time maintaining a pretty high quality of life.

The Experiment

Don’t worry, the experiment was not based on the horror movie. The experiment that I’m referring to was recently conducted by QDaily in China. It’s purpose? To see what life would be like for a person to stay at home for 18 days, using only online applications and their services. Surprisingly, during the 432 hours, even with a power blackout and illness, the test subject successfully managed to avoid leaving the house even once. AND she had an exceptionally enriched life.

Here’s what the experiment involved:

- Trialling 103 online applications, and following 61 social media service accounts.

- Using 72 kinds of online home delivered services

- Total spending of $1000

- Without a reserve of groceries stocked in her pantry, friends were allowed to visit but not to bring any products through the doors

Forget boredom…

First, the most obvious need was for food, but with lots of home delivery apps, the test subject got sufficient groceries, food supplies, and even in-house chef services (similar to the CHEFIN in Australia).

Home delivered groceries                                             Dinner with in-house chef service

The next problem was housework. Because she was working from home, she didn’t have the time or patience to do housework herself. However, thanks to on-site services, she got a cleaner, a wardrobe repairer and a launderer to do the dirty work for her.

Cleaner

When she got sick, online diagnosis apps helped her to self-diagnose and self-medicate. Along with the help of medicine delivery services, her products were delivered to her door within the hour.

Delivered medicine

What about leisure time? Yoga trainers, masseuse and hairdressers all provided excellent services for keeping fit and staying beautiful, all from the comfort of her home.

   Hair dresser                                                  Yoga trainer

Still not enough to stave off boredom? She got roses delivered and even found a rental pet to play with for the day.

Delivered roses                                                Rented pet dog

After the 18 days were up, she was still healthy, energetic, well fed, with a clean and neat house that was even decorated with flowers. What’s more, some of the people who provided their services eventually became her friends.

This might sound a bit out there to you, but with the sheer number of digital apps filling up our lives, this is what our world has become. Even though many of don’t yet heavily rely on on-site services, most of us are using at least 2 to 3 apps every day. And that number is sure to only grow.

Online statistics show that the amount of internet users has doubled during the last seven years, and the average time spent online has gone through the roof. With more advanced technology and the abundance of online services available, users are able to live through the internet. Whether it’s to work, play or shop, consumers are able to make decisions simply by clicking buttons on a digital device.

This lifestyle trend has influenced all industries. Consequently, online business have thrived in recent years. New applications have flooded the app stores, and e-commerce companies are fighting to increase their delivery speeds. For example, several years ago in China, where the trend is way ahead of the western word, in most areas the average delivery time was one and a half days. Now it takes less than 24 hours. Some firms with specialised products are competing to deliver in under half a day and in some cases less than one hour!

More and more companies have joined the digital platform, which has in turn created a diverse online ecosystem. They have analysed customer migration pathways in detail and partnered with other firms to cover entire neighbourhoods. In order for the ecosystem to function, consumers have been saturated with ad exposure, attractive content, entertainment interaction, physical shops filled with tempting products and convenient delivery services.

With this level of convenience, coupled with the ever accelerating fast pace of life, it is altogether too tempting for consumers to further simplify their lives by integrating the real world with their digital devices. Let’s face it, you would have to be crazy not to!

Bowie Chen
Current student from the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School.
Bowie has several years’ experience working in FMCG marketing, media, and consulting field.

Hungry for Health

How Consumers’ Power Can Influence an Industry

You may or may not have noticed, but here in Australia, we are a nation of fitness freaks. Think that I’m wrong? I’d wager that at around half the people reading this article would have some form of vitamin or dietary supplement in their home.

A study performed in 2015 by Roy Morgan Research shows that 8.1 million Aussies 14+ (or 42% of the population) bought vitamins, minerals and/or supplements in any given six-month period — a substantial increase on the 6.6 million consumers (36%) who bought them in the year to June 2011.

In Australia, the consumer health market has reached $6.5bn. Within the consumer health market the increase in health related issues has seen the consumer health market skyrocket worldwide. This is a rapid growing trend that is sure to only grow in the coming years.

Purchased vitamins in the last 6 months: men vs women. Source: Roy Morgan Research, Checking the health of Australia’s vitamin market, September 22 2015

What are the key drivers?

It may surprise you, but according to a 2016 Euromonitor Report the vitamins and dietary supplements market segment has gained a value growth of 6% in 2016, driven by booming Chinese demand for Australian-made vitamins and dietary supplements products. 

The insatiable demand from the Chinese market.

With increasing household incomes, raising concerns of the pollution of the local environment, and the growing need for better quality health products, Chinese consumers start to look at the broader market, and make their purchase overseas. 

So where better to shop than next door, in Australia? With our optimal environment and strict quality control over pharmaceutical manufacturing, Australia has become one of the key destinations for Chinese consumers to shop for their dietary needs. 

And so the Health Industry reacts…

In acknowledgement of this lucrative business opportunity, the health industry in Australia has actively changed their strategies to embrace this consumer trend.

Swisse, one of the largest vitamin and supplement manufacturers in Australia, has grabbed the so-called bull by the horns, setting up a Chinese language version of their official website, with clear segment drives traffic to a Chinese e-commerce platform and Chinese social media. 

Furthermore, clear and well-organised displays can be observed in Australian stores, with detailed product information in the Chinese language in order to provide a better understanding of the products for Chinese consumers. 

What are the retailers’ approaches towards the trend?

Amcal, one of the largest pharmacy chains in Australia, is attempting to meet the Chinese appetite for Australian-made products. Going so far as to launch a new version of their e-commerce platform in Mandarin Chinese language.

What was their aim? To break the culture and language barriers between Australian pharmaceutical companies and their target market- Chinese consumers, with the added bonus of offering the convenience of direct shipping to China.

The end-users transition to acting as distributors.

With record growing numbers of social media users in China, students have started to interact in the health community to play the part of Daigou. Daigou are influencers who sell products through their personal network, some making such killing, they often ship a staggering thirty to fifty orders per week to China. Many have been so profitable they have even quit their day job to make this as their principal form of business.

Consumers hold the power.

These days we are witnessing a growing trend of consumers influencing entire industries. The subtle marketing relationships between these interwoven segments means that if the demand from one of these segments changes then a domino effect could see the entire market shift. 

Now that’s what I call influential.

Bowie Chen
Current student from the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School.
Bowie has several years’ experience working in FMCG marketing, media, and consulting field.

7 Student Hacks You Will Not Want To Miss!!!

Once more, we find ourselves at the beginning of a new semester and intensive classes have already begun. For most, it’s exciting, but for some returning to student life can be a little stressful! I know there are lots of new students who want to make the most of their time this semester, so to make things a little easier for you to understand, we invited our Program Manager Anna Forte, to share some vital information with you.

Feel free to share this post to all your USYD friends via Facebook or keep it as a favourite page in case you need it one day again. Hyperlinks are used throughout the article, so all you have to do is click for a shortcut to the page on the USYD website. 

1. Hi Anna. Thanks for seeing me. Do you have any important tips to help students make the most of their student life at USYD?

As Master of Marketing students are generally here for just over a year, it’s important to jump in feet first and start to build your network as soon as you can, by engaging with your peers and lecturers, as well as the Business School and broader University communities. There are many opportunities available to students to connect with others, such as events to attend, clubs & societies to join, and many other extra-curricular activities such as sports clubs and facilities, business competitions and volunteering. Don’t forget to take the time to explore Sydney and all it has to offer – try and do one cultural activity every week, for example, go to a museum, art gallery or maybe a coastal hike.

2. There are lots of intensive classes in the Master of Marketing. How can we digest the vast amount of information in such a short amount of time, while maintaining work/life balance?

As a general rule, you should be spending about three hours of self-directed study on each hour of face-to-face/in class time. Make sure that you read the preparatory material prior to classes and have some questions or discussion points prepared for class. Share your experiences with your peers and make sure you are actively engaged with your class. Create a study group with friends and study on campus as much as possible, away from the distractions of home. There are study spaces and learning hubs around campus that allow you to do so, and if you are really keen to focus on your studies there are plenty of productivity apps available which lock you out of distracting websites or phone apps.

In addition, Learning Services are available to all students that range from workshops to online and interactive resources, covering topics from time management to academic writing. If you feel you are beginning to struggle academically, the Business School has a Learning Support Officer who can direct you to appropriate resources – please contact our Program Manger Anna Forte in the first instance if you feel that you require this type of assistance. There are also a number of support services on campus – do not be afraid to ask for help as soon as you identify an issue which is affecting your studies.

3. Is networking essential? Where do we find the portals for information about the upcoming events?

Events are advertised on the relevant Business School and University websites. If there are relevant events in the future, Anna will also help to advertise on the Master of Marketing Blackboard portal. Another suggestion is for graduating students, you should join the Alumni network to keep in touch and be informed of any events or opportunities to remain involved with the Business School.

For the ones that hope to make more connections with students or professors in Business School in other majors, although there is no plan to establish or further explore these relationships by the MMarketing program at this stage. However if there is interest in doing so, this represents a fantastic opportunity for students to be proactive in establishing these connections and to develop and build on their networking skills. Another opportunity for engagement with other Business School students will come from involvement in Peer Mentoring, Clubs & Societies, and other extracurricular activities.

4. Time is limited, do you have any advice for students to become job ready before graduation?

Especially for the international students that want to have more practical work experience in Australia but don’t have the right to work full time.

The Careers and Employability Office (CEO) is an amazing resource unlike any other offered to students elsewhere in the University. The Job Smart program in particular, to which you all should have received an email invitation, is a great starting point in understanding the Australian labour market even if you have had significant work experience internationally. The CEO offers a number of other services and resources, such as resume and interview resources, job vacancy and internship postings, and one-on-one career counselling. This information can be found on Blackboard or the CEO website. Start by identifying your current skillset and comparing this with the graduate attributes that are valued by employers and all postgraduate students should aim to achieve.

5. If students want to join an internship program, but IPP isn’t an option, are there any other opportunities to explore?

As the Master of Marketing is an intensive course, all the units in the program are specialised for the degree and there are no credits available for students to undertake an IPP (Industry Placement Program) component. However, there are many opportunities for students to undertake projects and extracurricular activities via the Clubs and Societies programs, for example 180 Degrees Consulting, Enactus, and the Sydney Marketing Network. Furthermore, there is an internship reward component of the Job Smart program for highly engaged students. 

6. Some students are still confused about the tuition fee’s structure and payment due date, can you tell us how to understand our fee breakdown?

The Tuition fees website is a great resource for estimating your fees (See “Understanding Your Fees”). Fees are based on a standard full-time student enrolment load of 24 credit points per semester or 48 credit points per year (1.0 Equivalent Full-Time Study Load – EFTSL). The Master of Marketing is a 60 credit point degree, so the study load for full time students is 1.25 EFTSL. It is also important to note that fees do increase at the beginning of each calendar year.

Payment due dates differ for domestic and international students: http://sydney.edu.au/students/paying-your-fees/payment-dates.html

7. For those who are planning ahead for graduation, where might we find that information?

The Graduation Ceremony for the graduating cohort is Thursday 25 May 2017 at 9:30am. Graduation information can be found here: http://sydney.edu.au/students/graduation.html. For those students expecting to graduate in Semester 2, 2017 tentative dates can be found here.

Time flies quickly, let’s make the most of it in USYD!

Anna Forte is the Graduate Business Program Manager looking after the specialist Masters programs at the University of Sydney Business School. She began working for the University in 2005 in a research capacity, and has since held various roles in executive support, research administration, and program management. 

About the Blogger:
Bowie Chen is from China and a current student in the Master of Marketing program at the University of Sydney Business School. Bowie has several years’ experience working in FMCG marketing, media (especially TV station), and consulting firms.