Memoirs of a masters student

So it’s week 6 of the new course. What can I say? It’s been absolutely fantastic so far – a lot of work but still a wonderful experience. I learned so much in just 2 weeks of the course than I had learned in my 5 years of science put together. If that’s not saying something to you, it certainly is to me. MA Strategic Marketing Communications was made for meeeeeeee!!!! Hehe…

So I’m taking three core courses this semester: Advertising and Marketing Communications, Contemporary Issues in Marketing Communications and Communications Theory. I’m not going to babble on and bore everyone about the contents of the course! I just want to share with you guys some of the interesting things I have learned from my course so far (interesting to me anyway).

The first and most important of all – The Business School in Greenwich is absolutely amazing. All the lectures are quite interactive. The help you get from the lecturers is immense, and to top it all, we get freeeee food (sometimes), now what’s better than free food?

I have also learned that advertising is a form of marketing communications (I never knew this). It goes way beyond what we see on television, on the internet or in magazines and newspapers – the meaning and the purpose is never obvious. Advertising gives us elements of something we might recognise and asks consumers to do the rest of the work, maybe to get them more curious about the product or brand.  Marketing communications isn't just about promoting or selling stuff, it’s a cultural avenue. Most of the adverts we see would have gone through extensive scrutiny before being put out, so as to accommodate people’s different background and beliefs. In other words, they don’t want anyone to be offended.

This course has certainly given me a new way of looking at different types of advertisement and having a deeper understanding of what each brand or product is trying to convey. I’m just going to leave you guys with a few random things I have come across in the past 6 weeks.

Quick fun facts

• Starbucks aimed to make their coffee shop the “3^rd place” – not home, not work, just a place to chill and hangout.
• Reebok started off in England before 1960.
• Johnny Walker scotch is a very successful brand because they have maintained the same logo for years.
• There used to be cocaine in Coca-Cola, it was removed in 1929.
• Most inorganic wines are filled with preservatives. The bottles are washed in sulphides before the drinks are put in.
• 1 in 3 primary school leavers in the U.K. are overweight.
• 1 in 5 Americans die from obesity.
• Sainsbury’s is the only one of the “big four” supermarkets that is making a profit. The rest are at a loss (obviously). The Big Four supermarkets include Tesco, Sainsbury’s, ASDA and Morrison’s.
• In the U.K., companies are not allowed for marketing communications to target toys to a specific gender.
• The U.K. has the strongest anti-bribery act in the world.      

Toodles!